On The President (Bush) Leaking Like A Sieve, And Lying Like A Rug... During a "War!"

REMEMBER, KIDS:
It wasn't about THE SEX.
It was ABOUT THE LYING!!I can't think of anything else to say, but I found a few thoughts at Atrios's site, Eschaton...

Starting with Atrios, himself:

(T)he president bypassed normal declassification procedures - put in place to ensure that revealing information does not threaten national security - in order to wage a political battle. Whether strictly legal or not, it's an act of a man who puts himself above the country. For shame.

Then, quoting CNN's Bill Schneider:

(Bush) was leaking... sensitive intelligence information apparently for political reasons, political reasons, not national security reasons. And that, I think, is going to be very difficult to explain.

And Senator Jane Harman:

The President has the legal authority to declassify information, but there are normal channels for doing so. Telling an aide to leak classified information to the New York Times is not a normal channel.A normal declassification procedure would involve going back to the originating agency, such as the CIA, and then putting out a public, declassified version of the document...

Finally, Atrios again:

It's probably reasonable that the president can declassify whatever he wants, or at least I haven't really seen an especially strong argument to the contrary, but that doesn't mean that the president can declassify stuff, show it to Judy Miller, and then turn around claim the stuff is still classified. That's where this argument falls apart.

Amen brothers & sisters... And,"Duh," Herb.