As Leakgate Scandal Puts Smoking Gun In Bush's Hand, Republicans and Democrats Should Ask "Why He Leaked?" Not "Was It Legal?"
As this week ends, America finds itself revisiting the Leakgate scandal being investigated by Patrick Fitzgerald. The big news? According to sworn testimony to a Grand Jury, it was President Bush who authorized the release of classified information to I. Lewis Libby, who subsequently revealed the name of an undercover CIA agent. As legal analyst John Dean makes clear, Bush leaking information is not the same as Bush revealing Plame's identity. But a smoking gun is now clearly in President Bush's hand.
In response to this revelation, it is clear that the President--and the Vice President and everyone else being investigated in this scandal--wants Americans to ask "Was it legal?" Was it legal for the President to disclose classified information. That question leads us into a legal discussion that will put to sleep 99.99% of the American public, media pundits included. And it is not the question we should be asking or answering at this stage in the debate.
To wake up America, and to draw their attention to the seriousness of
this scandal, Democrats and Republicans should come together and ask the samequestion: "In the run up to the War on Iraq, why did the President choose to leak classified information?" Why did he do it at that moment? Why?
The answer: Because he wanted his war to continue on his terms and he did not want anyone to stop him. President Bush leaked information because he wanted to keep pushing the Iraq war forward. He wanted the war and the only thing standing between him and what he wanted was Joe Wilson. So he leaked information to the press via his own staff and the staff of Vice President Cheney. And he kept his war.
And this leads us to a second question: If President Bush had not leaked the information used to out Valery Plame, would we be where we find ourselves in Iraq, today?
Those are the questions we should be asking. That is the discussion America wants.
For GOP: Voters Tired of Legal Spin
For Republicans, "Why did President Bush leak information at that exact moment?" is an important question to ask.
Republicans from the top of the party to the base tend to support President Bush's policy in Iraq, but they are frustrated with the cost, the poor planning, and--most importantly--with the President's inability to keep the public focused on the goals and accomplishments of the war.
For Republicans, finding out that the President leaked information to discredit a critic of his policy is yet another distraction from the larger goal of clarifying the policy, completing the mission, and dealing with the hemorrhaging costs in terms of lives and money. Being led into a debate about legal precedents and if or how the President had the right to declassify documents--this does nothing for Republicans but make their situation worse.
A drawn out legal debate could cause problems Republicans do not want in the upcoming midterm election season. Republicans heading into 2006 want to step in front of voters and say, "We are succeeding in Iraq. The President is doing the right thing. This is where we are headed." None of that will happen if they are drawn into endless debates about Presidential power--which is what President Bush wants to do. Republicans who do not want to alienate voters should stop asking "if" the leak was legal, and start asking "why" the President leaked at that time.
For Dems: Voters Tired of War
For Democrats, "Why did President Bush leak information at that exact moment?" is also an important question to ask.
Democrats from the top of the party to the base tend to be against President Bush's policy in Iraq, frustrated by the cost of the war, the lack of clear goals in the policy, and--most importantly--by the President's unwillingness to listen to anyone with suggestions about improving the situation.
For Democrats, finding out that the President leaked information to discredit a critic of his policy confirms what they already know about a stubborn Chief Executive. But being drawn into a legal debate is a massive distraction to the real issue at hand.
By asking "Why the President leaked information at that exact time leading up to the war?" Democratic leadership can focus the debate on an important, ongoing issue: A President who does not listen to the advice of others, and the real suffering that has caused the American public. Democrats want to talk about being the kind of leaders that respond to and act in the interests of the American people, on national security and every other issue.
Again, the issue is the 2006 elections. If Democrats allow the President too pose the question--if they allow the question in the Leakgate debate to be "Was it legal?"--then the voters will be distracted away from the questions of leadership, security and spending that will bring victory for the Democrats at the polls.
Asking Why: It's Good For Both Parties
Republicans should be able to see at this point that the President of the United States, having been caught with the smoking gun in his hands in the Leakgate scandal, can no longer be trusted to act in the best interests of the party. This is precisely the moment for GOP to split from the President by not following him into this distracting debate over the legality or illegality of the President's power to declassify information. This is the moment for a new leader of the Republican party to emerge--John McCain or Mitt Romney--by insisting that the party ask "Why did the President leak information at that moment?"
Democrats, for their part, cannot let this smoking gun moment in the Leakgate scandal lure them into answering questions posed by aggressive Republicans, namely the President. This is the time for Democrats to pose the questions. If anyone asks a Democrat if they think the President has the power to declassify information, that Democrat--if he or she wants to lead this debate, and not be led by it--needs to respond, "The real question is 'Why did the President leak information at that time?' And the answer to that question is: because he wanted this war on his terms at that moment, and he was not going to let anyone get in his way."
Switching from questions of "if" to questions of "why" in the Leakgate scandal will not make the debate over Iraq go away, but it will make the debate about real issues that interest the public. And when that happens, not everyone gets elected, but everybody wins.
© 2006 Jeffrey Feldman