Daschle Comes Out Swinging

Senate Minority leader Tom Daschle released this statement today:

When former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill stepped forward
to criticize the Bush Administration's Iraq policy, he was immediately
ridiculed by the people around the President and his credibility was
attacked. Even worse, the Administration launched a government
investigation to see if Secretary O'Neill improperly disclosed
classified documents. He was, of course, exonerated, but the message
was clear. If you speak freely, there will be consequences.
Ambassador Joseph Wilson also learned that lesson. Ambassador Wilson,
who by all accounts served bravely under President Bush in the early
1990s, felt a responsibility to speak out on President Bush's false
State of the Union statement on Niger and uranium. When he did, the
people around the President quickly retaliated. Within weeks of
debunking the President's claim, Ambassador Wilson's wife was the
target of a despicable act.
Her identity as a deep-cover CIA agent was revealed to Bob Novak, a
syndicated columnist, and was printed in newspapers around the country.
That was the first time in our history, I believe, that the identity
and safety of a CIA agent was disclosed for purely political purposes.
It was an unconscionable and intolerable act. Around the same time Bush
Administration officials were endangering Ambassador Wilson's wife,
they appear to have been threatening another federal employee for
trying to do his job. In recent weeks Richard Foster, an actuary for
the Department of Health and Human Services, has revealed that he was
told he would be fired if he told Congress and the American people the
real costs of last year?s Medicare bill.
Mr. Foster, in an e-mail he wrote on June 26 of last year, said the
whole episode had been "pretty nightmarish." He wrote: "I'm no longer
in grave danger of being fired, but there remains a strong likelihood
that I will have to resign in protest of the withholding of important
technical information from key policymakers for political purposes."
Think about those words. He would lose his job if he did his job. If he
provided the information the Congress and the American people deserved
and were entitled to, he would lose his job. When did this become the
standard for our government? When did we become a government of
intimidation?
And now, in today's newspapers, we see the latest example of how the
people around the President react when faced with facts they want to
avoid.
The White House's former lead counter-terrorism advisor, Richard
Clarke, is under fierce attack for questioning the White House?s record
on combating terrorism. Mr. Clarke has served in four White Houses,
beginning with Ronald Reagan's Administration, and earned an impeccable
record for his work. Now the White House seeks to destroy his
reputation. The people around the President aren't answering his
allegations; instead, they are trying to use the same tactics they used
with Paul O'Neill. They are trying to ridicule Mr. Clarke and destroy
his credibility, and create any diversion possible to focus attention
away from his serious allegations.
The purpose of government isn't to make the President look good.
It isn't to produce propaganda or misleading information. It is,
instead, to do its best for the American people and to be accountable
to the American people.
The people around the President don't seem to believe that. They have
crossed a line -- perhaps several lines -- that no government ought to
cross.
We shouldn't fire or demean people for telling the truth. We shouldn't
reveal the names of law enforcement officials for political gain. And
we shouldn't try to destroy people who are out to make country safer.
I think the people around the President have crossed into dangerous
territory. We are seeing abuses of power that cannot be tolerated. The
President needs to put a stop to it, right now. We need to get to the
truth, and the President needs to help us do that.

Finally. We need to see organized responses from everyone
in the Democratic leadership positions. The GOP has 20 talking heads
that they send out on every issue, and we should be able to respond
quickly and effectively. This is a great statement, and I hope Daschle
keeps it up.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 23, 2004 at 03:59 PM | Permalink