[Rhodes22-list]Wally's political reply

[ed kroposki]

Wally,

"The guy got caught messing around and lied about it." 

The messing around part had a more significant angle.  The lady was not only
a subordinate, but in a position where he had significant responsibility of
trust to her.   An intern represents a unique position.  It is more than
employer to employee.  Legally and ethically is closer to father and
daughter.  She was not put there for his sexual enjoyment.  There is no
question that a whole lot of women would willingly have had sex with him.
And, I would have no problem with his doing so.  But his taking advantage
the special relationship that the two positions had was a special wrong.
And, he lied in a court proceeding under oath.  That is the crime of
perjury.  He was disbarred for that in Arkansas; anybody else would have
time in jail.

"On the other hand we have a sitting president that claimed while running
for office that he was against Nation Building. Once elected he spread
around a bunch of rumors as facts leading us into war against a nation that
posed no real threat to our National Security. This pisses me off much
more."

Here Rummy's evaluation of intelligence comes in perspective.  He was given
information and looked at that information thru narrow blinders.  He
evidentially did not fully evaluate all the alternatives.  It appears that
those advisors close to him gave him primarily a narrow view or were content
to let him believe a limited view.  Maybe he did not have the smarts to
predict the future or have trust in those who saw different possibilities.

As President he expected the CIA and the Pentagon's office of military
intelligence to give him good information.  I say that they did not do their
jobs.  The attorney general said that they were hindered by the previous
administrations rules (memo).  I would say that was not a sufficient excuse.
The president should have been explicitly told that all information he was
getting was weak and bias.  He should have been told that emphatically, and
the fact that he was told that should have been documented (there is no
information that this was done).  The fact that he was not strongly informed
of the weakness in his information is problematic.  However, I think that at
the time he as President of the USA, he had a right to expect he was getting
good information.  Now that we all know the some of flaws, the issue is, are
the flaws fixed?  Since the answers to that are state secrets, it will be
years before the truth gets out.    

         Ed K