The only thing better than going to see a movie like V for Vendetta is reading (the very next day) headlines like "Bush said to have approved leak of Iraq data"

This comes as no surprise to me. Perhaps no one else recalls how the White House Press Secretary, speaking on behalf of the administration, basically said that whoever leaked the information would be out of a job. If you did recall, and just wanted to check your facts, good luck, because all those articles are buried under a mountain of more recent news stories. But here, I'll help:

From CNN Sept 29, 2003:

"The president believes leaking classified information is a very serious matter and it should be pursued to the fullest extent by the appropriate agency and the appropriate agency is the Department of Justice," White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters.

From CNN Sept 30, 2003:

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He has made it very clear to people in his administration that he expects to them to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration.

The original statements sounded like the White House was handling the matter appropriately, but as things played out, it was clearly a joke to the boobs in charge.

From CNN Oct 6, 2003

"I'd like to know who leaked," Bush said. "And if anybody's got information inside our government or outside our government who leaked, you ought to take it to the Justice Department, so we can find the leaker."

Unless the leaker¹ is our fearless leader and his cronies, all acting in cahoots and knowing that they will never be given anything more than a slap on the hand for this.

And now they claim that it is Bush's right to disclose such information

[Reuters UK Apr 6, 2006]

Bush had the authority to declassify the material. But the court papers said Libby noted "it was unique in his recollection" to get approval from the president, via the vice president, for such an action.

but why then not just come out and say he did it in the first place and hide behind that right from the start? Instead he wasted literally years of investigators time and countless taxpayer dollars by allowing the investigation to continue.

There were moments while watching V that I felt that it was a rather heavy handed commentary on the Bush administration. But after the handling of incidents such as this, I can only shake my head and hope that Bush does not create a Supreme Chancellor position and move himself into it.


¹ Who the hell ever let this man talk into the mike?