Posted on 10/30/2005 12:30:12 PM PST by wagglebee
A former chief of staff to impeached ex-president Bill Clinton said Sunday that President Bush owes the nation an apology because the White House had misled the nation during the Leakgate investigation.
Asked on Sunday by "Meet the Press" host-turned-Leakgate prosecution witness Tim Russert what President Bush should do to get out from under the scandal, Leon Panetta urged:
"I think he's really got to approach the American people, and I would do it first thing Monday morning . . . have Scott McClellan go forward and say, 'We apologize to the American people for having misled the people about the fact that no one in the White House was involved in this leak situation.'"
Panetta was referring to earlier claims by McClellan that neither Lewis Libby or Karl Rove was involved in Leakgate.
The one-time top Clintonista suggested that Bush should replace those responsible for misleading reporters in order to restore public trust in his administration:
"This president is only going to be able to restore trust, not only by taking responsibility . . . but secondly, he's got to bring some new life in the White House. He's got to bring some people who are going to bring some new ideas, who can restore some of that credibility, both with Congress and the nation."
Seven years ago, however, a different standard seemed to obtain after Panetta's old boss lied to the nation for eight months in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Back then, no one resigned from the Clinton administration.
The brazen hypocrisy of the Clintonistas is unbelievable!
They are spelled not "clintonistas" but "clintorrhoids", being a-holes or pertaining to them.
Dingy Harry Reid said the same thing. Guess the new talking point has gone out from the Hillary HQ. Looks like 2008 is all ready here.
What leak?
What is needed is the picture of Mr. Bush saying you're number one to all of those calling for an apology.
They can just parrot this phrase everytime Panetta or any other idiot comes up with this.
You know, just when I think Panetta is trying to at least appear fair-minded...he says this. Back on the- can't be trusted with the facts- list.
Unbelievable.
I had that same thought when watching MTP this morning.
The words of this wizard stand on their heads (to quote Gimli the Dwarf.) The President never said that no one in the Administration, nor Liddy nor Rove in particular, were not "involved in Leakgate." Any such statement would have been false on its face, and that falsity would have been evident from the moment the statement was made. The whole point of the "scandal" was the assertion that a high-ranking member of the Administration had "leaked" the covert status of Valerie Plame.
The Administration's denial of involvment logically could only have been interpreted as a denial of any criminally wrong act or conspiracy on the part of any member of the Administration that would justify the assertions of the scandal at the time--namely, that a high-ranking Administration official had illegally blown the cover of a covert operative of the United States, and had done so for partisan political motivation. So far, no competent authority has acted to justify any such allegation in any manner. No one has been indicted, arrested or criminally charged with any such crime, in spite of years of investigation by a special prosecutor who obviously has no fear or reluctance to indict, charge or arrest high Administration officials.
Given these facts, it is the Democrats in general and Wilson in particular who owes an apology.
This will be taken as seriously as Cindy Sheehan.
Tell the Clintonistas to stuff it.
Bush owes an apology to his supporters for failing to stand up to the destructive Dem-lib forces two years ago, when he should have had the US Attorney General stop this idiotic probe into a non-crime.
If anything, Bush owes us an apology for failing to have the balls to stand up to his enemies, and for trying to 'change the tone in Washington DC' when everyone knows that is impossible.
Panetta's mama owes us all an apology for giving birth to Leon.
Let's make America an "Apology-free Zone".
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