"What's good for the Goss..."

For once, we agree with CIA Director Porter Goss that anyone who leaks classified government information should be fired whether they work for the CIA, or happen to inhabit the White House.

The dismissal of a high level CIA employee yesterday for having unauthorized relations with the media bespeaks the kind of totalitarianism that has become signature Bush over the past 5 years. Moreover, the underlying lesson is even more terrifying: caution---talking to the press may be hazardous to your health, the health of your spouse, and/or your job.

As the Department of Justice opens preliminary investigations into who leaked information on the existence of clandestine prisons throughout Europe, as well as into The New York Times Pulitzer Prize winning probe of domestic surveillance by the NSA, we need to ask if the can-do corruption epitomized by this administration, as well as their sophistry, is relevant in a world which is quickly being bought out by China and India.

The specious reasoning, and monolingual logic, that distinguishes this administration from virtually every other which precedes it isn't worthy of a college freshman, and there is no way to get around the fact that the highest members of this government broke the law, as well as an oath of office to be keepers of the public trust, and to terminate a CIA agent who was compelled, by her moral compass, to expose merely a fraction of the dread that has dawned on America since Mr. Bush, and his party, rode into town, is not merely absurd, it is tragic. Indeed, it may not be enough to give these folks their walking papers, we may have to provide them with a map.

While the DOJ is at the business of investigating, investigate this: does evading a tax, then striking that tax from the books ex post facto still count as tax evasion, or because the tax is no longer on the books, is it no longer illegal not to pay it? Likewise, does declassifying information that was, at one time, confidential make leaking that information legitimate. And, more importantly, is the president of the United States exempt from "secrecy" pledges that "intellgence" agencies take upon employment. If nothing else, this administration has reminded us, for the first time in more than 30 years, of how grave a risk misguided leadership can pose to national security.

The bottom line: what's good for the Goss must also be good for the Gander...