Okay...
We've all seen the news by now, Trent Lott has admitted publicly that he believes it was a GOP Senator who spilled the beans to the Post regarding the secret prisons, and feels that this could end up as an investigation into his own party, etc etc etc (see front page story).
This begs the question:
What are Lott's motives here? Does he know who the blabbermouth is and not care, or does truly not know which indivudual Senator is responsible and only made these statements due to his hatred of Frist and desire to belittle his efforts? Or, perhaps, is it genuine guilt? (least likely option).
My first reaction was that the leaker had to be McCain, since he is the one to take this news most personally, coupled with the fact that he has been pushing the torture amendment HARD recently, much to the chagrin of BushCo and Cheney in particular. Cheney was also in this GOP meeting last week regarding the prisons.
What if Cheney/BushCo are setting up an investigation of McCain, to discredit him or push him out of the GOP race in 08? Cheney/BushCo are no fans of McCain, and they may have guessed he'd 'leak' or else they found out he leaked prior to the blustery anger of Frist/Hastert, and gave Frist/Hastert the go-ahead to declare this an important national security issue. Order of events (going into the future too):
- Meeting
- Pissed off McCain tells press
- Cheney finds out, tells Frist/Hastert to go apeshit
- Lott tells press its a GOoPer
- Its McCain!
- He is investigated/gets in loads o' trouble
- Uber-popular McCain doesnt run in 08, the BushCo natural successor does
Its the ultimate swiftboat tactic...they are attacking McCain's strongest point, his dedication to anti-torture, and turning it on its head.
Frist/Hastert MUST HAVE KNOWN the info came out of the GOP meeting, and their righteous indignation smacks of a ploy.
Whatcha think? has this idea been put forward in those gazillion comments on the front page?