Meanwhile, here's a hoot - Guards left Berger alone, sources say. Seems he convinced them to violate the document handling rules because he had to make a bunch of "private phone calls". He also used that shoplifting favorite, "lots of bathroom breaks." Maybe he needed something to read while he was on the throne?
The big WaPo article doesn't add that much more besides the rather confused story of Berger's professional spinners. And what a surprise, he's had 'em lined up for months:
Berger has known for months that he was in potential jeopardy. Breuer was hired in October, and in January former White House press secretary Joe Lockhart was enlisted to remain on standby if a public controversy blossomed.The presstitutes are unified in their talking points whine about a "carefully orchestrated leak" and suspicious timing. I'm suspicious too - suspicious that spinmeister Lanny Davis is on the job and that his favorite reporter broke the Berger story:
Davis brags in his book about leaking damaging information to control the spin. And that's exactly what's occurring here and now with John Kerry accusing the White House of leaking the Berger story, and trying to take the focus off Berger and place it on the president.Might have worked too, but everyone is rather entranced by the fetching vision of a pudgy bureaucrat stuffing documents in his "tighty whities."
Of course, what is charming in a Donk with hot fingers, would be something else in a Republican. Lileks says:
Sandy Berger, Clinton-era national security adviser and "informal" adviser on the same to Sen. John Kerry, is under investigation for cramming his khakis with classified memos and taking them out of the National Archives. Hey, it's happened to us all. You have an orange for lunch, your hands get sticky. Things happen, and besides, none of the memos could possibly have cast the Clinton team in a bad light, of course.Hugh Hewitt on the same theme and also Ace of Spades HQ.
But let's play everyone's favorite game, "What If He Was a Republican?" Imagine Dick Cheney caught filling his socks with documents on pre-Sept. 11 security procedures. Imagine a hidden camera snapping shots of Condi Rice slipping secret memos into her foundation garments. We wouldn't be hearing about impeachment, we'd be debating the probity of rolling a guillotine toward the White House, and whether the heads should be arranged alphabetically on the fence spikes, or by seniority.
