Another Bush Failure

Most of the coverage you see about the recent report by the National Archives and Records Administration showing that Sandy Berger pilfered and hid documents from the archives under a construction trailer focuses on the mea culpa Berger offered that it was an "honest mistake" and that no real documents were removed---just copies. We may never know if that is the case since he admits to cutting them up with scissors and throwing them in the trash, but we do know he lied in his testimony about the incident.

My take is one which I have not seen. We all knew after 8 years that the Clinton administration was capable of misusing FBI files, losing documents required for court proceedings, and then lying about the events. Bush was expected to have different standards, at least by those of us who voted for him. This turned out not to be the case and the pitiful prosecution of Berger's case by the Bush Department of Justice is disgraceful. He should never have been allowed to plea bargain down to a misdemeanor with community service. At the same time, Bush is allowing Scooter Libby to be prosecuted about an account of a non-crime because his account of events differed from those of some reporters. This indicates to me that the Bush standards are no greater than those of Clinton and that is a shame.