From a Press Release just out from Speaker Hastert …
Speaker Hastert on Congressional Investigation Regarding
National Security and Sandy Berger
(Washington D.C.) Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) today made the following statement:
“Like many Americans concerned about our national security, I look forward to learning more from the House Government Reform Committee’s investigation into the wayward actions by Sandy Berger. The American people deserve to know why Mr. Berger apparently skirted the law and removed highly classified terrorism documents, purportedly in his pants, from a secure reading room at the National Archives and then proceeded to lose or destroy some of them.
“How could President Clinton’s former National Security Advisor be so cavalier?
“Was Mr. Berger trying to cover-up key facts regarding intelligence failures during his watch?
“What happened to those missing documents?
“Whose hands did they fall into?
“What kind of security risk does that pose to Americans today?
“I know Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA) will work to get the full truth of what really happened and help all of us better understand why Sandy Berger, a person who should fully understand the gravity and importance of sensitive national security materials, would operate with such overt negligence and apparent disregard for the law.”
Any Democrat has to see red when <$Ad$>reading those words — in fact, I’m tempted to say anyone with more than a bit of decency.
But I post them because critics of the administration, whatever their anger or indignation over those comments, should actually greet all this with a smile.
There’s no doubt this Berger imbroglio has thrown the Dems seriously off message for a couple days. And it’s embarrassing. There’s no denying it. But Hastert’s words are those of folks who are desperate — real desperate. Folks looking at November 2nd, not liking at all what they see, and casting about for anything that will change the political lay of the land.
