The Clinton Legacy

Does the name Mary McCarthy mean anything to any of you?

It should, and if it doesn't yet, it soon will.

She was a National Security Council staff member in the inspector general's office of the CIA, during the Clinton Administration. She was held over in the CIA by the Bush Administration in the interest of avoiding the destruction of the careers of everyone who worked for Clinton.

She is the source of the leaked information regarding the Secret Prisons where captured Al-Qaeda members were supposedly being held, in several European Countries that have been Allies of the U.S. in the War on Terror.

Whether these prisons actually exist or not has not been proven yet. One theory is that the information was bogus, and that it was floated as a "Sting" operation, in order to entrap leakers in the CIA.

It worked.

But whether the prisons exist or not is irrelevant. The fact that they were classified information is not in dispute, and she leaked it. And she does not have Presidential Authority to declassify information, like the President and the Vice President have.

That is Treason. Not "dissent", not "free speech", not a heroic American exercise of Constitutional Rights.

Treason. (There IS such a thing.)

And where are the people who have been calling for Scooter Libby's, Karl Rove's, Dick Cheney's and President Bush's heads for the crime of "leaking" the identity of Valerie Plame (who was NOT covert at the time?)

They are all over TV, claiming that since the information that McCarthy leaked was true (which we don't know yet), and since it was damaging to the Bush Administration (in their opinion), then she is a hero. A "whistle blower", not a Treasonous spy trying to undermine a sitting President during a time of War.

But that is not surprising. According to these people, and according to a lot of Americans, President Bush can do absolutely nothing right, and any means that have to be employed to discredit him and his administration, from Lying, to Spying, to leaking information about our Country's most secret and strategically important programs, is fair game.

To them, President Bush is the only criminal, no matter what anyone else does or says, because they believe that this is what the Republicans believed when Clinton was President. They believe that the Republicans constantly attacked Clinton for being corrupt, and that is how Republicans gained their power.

Never mind that the allegations against Clinton were true...

What does any of this have to do with President Clinton's Legacy?

A lot.

President Clinton believed that he was above the Law, for all intents and purposes, and he succeeded in convincing a lot of Americans that he should be. So now, Americans have been convinced that all Presidents believe that they are, and should be, above the Law.

President Clinton and his Administration took illegal Campaign Contributions from Foriegn Countries in exchange for Missile Technologies, Nuclear Materials, and political influence, so now, Americans believe that all Presidents and their Administrations are self serving and corrupt.

President Clinton put a whole host of his friends from Arkansas in positions of National Power when he became President, so now Americans believe that all Presidents engage in "Cronyism".

President Clinton lied and got caught, so now Americans believe that all Presidents lie with impunity.

Clinton set an example of incompetence, corruption and self-serving behavior which has poisoned the political process in America, and his influence is manifested daily in the hate filled attacks against President Bush by Clinton's Party.

This is Clinton's Legacy.

This is the price that America is paying for deciding that Character did not matter in Presidential Elections.

America will eventually right itself, but for decades to come, every time the White House, the Congress or the Senate changes hands, we will suffer a whole new barrage of attacks from the losing party against the winners, as a direct result of Clinton's effect on the attitude of Americans regarding their Elected Leaders.

This cannot be good for America.