Plame: A Second Bite At The Apple

Liberal Oasis gets it where most of the Dem campaigns don't. How to handle the Plame scandal:

There were some Dem attacks at first, but they were reactions to media reports, largely driven by investigators leaking about The Leak. The Dems weren’t driving the story.

So when the leaks stopped dripping, the Dems did nothing, there was no new news and the story faded.

Now, the Dems have a second bite at the apple.

Attorney General John Ashcroft’s recusal from the PlameGate investigation, and appointment of a special counsel, brings the story back to the spotlight.

This is not the time to applaud politely and express pleasant surprise at Ashcroft’s move. Don’t take a crumb and treat it like a five-course meal.

It’s the time for Dems to turn up the heat and say things like this:

- Ashcroft’s recusal, welcome but three months late, is evidence of how disturbingly high this investigation goes.
- There is most likely a criminal working in the Administration who has compromised our national security.
- George Bush should have realized this six months ago, when the CIA agent’s name was first published.
- Instead of immediately locating this cancer on his presidency and removing it, he has done nothing.
- Apparently, it doesn’t disturb his so-called moral clarity that he may well be signing the checks of a criminal working under him.
- Deferring to the Justice Department and effectively saying, there’s nothing I can do about it, is a political response, not a moral one.
- This alleged criminal most likely compromised our national security.

And as Newt once vowed to say “Monica” over and over, Dems should be saying “criminal” over and over.

This is a real scandal, and Bush is exposed. It’s a big deal. Start acting like it.