Mark A. Kilmer's Political Annotation

Berger and Clinton's orders

According to the Washington Times, former Clinton advisor Sandy Berger was following former President Bill Clinton's orders when he ransacked the National Archives:

Mr. Clinton asked Mr. Berger last year to review and select the administration documents that would be turned over to the commission.

One account has reporters catching Berger in the National Archives stuffing documents down his pants. Berger's lawyer told the AP that Sandy himself stuffed handwritten notes into his pants. The AP itself reports that National Archives employees saw Berger cramming documents into his pants then alerted the FBI when some turned up missing.

Former Clinton advisor David Gergen said on NBC's TODAY show that this was no big deal and was probably brought by Republicans up to distract from the commissions report, set to be released later this month.

WorldNetDaily.com, dubbing it "Whitewash-Gate," refers to this as possibly the "most shocking scandal of the Clinton administration," which is impossible, as that administration ended nearly for years ago. And it pales by comparison to the sale of sensitive military tech to the PRC, but that's not the point.

The web site DebkaFile covers it pretty well and speculates:

The Berger affair is pennies from heaven for the Bush presidential campaign with important bearing on the inquiries into intelligence performance prior to the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq War….

For months, President George W. Bush and vice president Dick Cheney have been under unremitting attack in official probes, films and books for bad decisions and “flawed intelligence” in the war on terrorism and for misrepresenting the grounds for going to war in Iraq. In the privacy of the Bush White House, presidential aides grumble that the Clinton administration’s failure to properly handle rising threats from Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in the 1990s left these ticking bombs in Bush’s lap. Clinton was said to have ignored the many warnings reaching him, including a specific threat against New York’s World Trade Center. However, Bush has always forbidden his campaign staff to point the finger at his predecessor in the White House for the ills of today, just as Clinton refrains from criticizing the incumbent. [?!?]

The actions of his former aide have changed these rules.

Presidential challenger Kerry will have to think twice before attacking Bush on national security issues lest he lay himself open to reminders that a former Clinton aide and his own adviser was caught red-handed misappropriating classified materials that revealed how a Democratic president mishandled the threat of terror. [ital. mine]

I don't foresee this having that grand an effect, as this places nothing at Clinton's door unless it can be proven that he authorized the document theft. See above.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And Steven Taylor (PoliBlog) notes that the Right side of the blogosphere is reporting the story, while those on the Left are more muted.

To those prone to believe little ill of Clinton & co., this was a case of Berger preparing to give truthful testimony to the 9-11 Commission. In his zeal to give the committee the full story, he took notes. Maybe some documents got mixed in with his notes and they were subsquently misplaced.

It's a leap, I know, but Clinton's supporters have taken longer such leaps requiring greater grace in the past.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, Nikita Demosthenes wonder's how the WashPost's Dana Milibank will spin this thing. Perhaps the Clinton-sympathetic bloggers are waiting on Milibank's take. "Dana'll show 'em!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CNN.com reports that the author of the missing document, an after-action report on the millenium, was Richard Clarke.

0 comments