Schumer Would Prefer There Was No History

Tigerhawk links an interesting New York Sun piece, although I would disagree with it's assertion that the Republican Party has switched positions on CIA leaks. The party may have at one time wanted to criminalize such leaks, but in the Rove-Plame case are simply following the law as it was written in 1982. An effort to make that law more strict was vetoed by Clinton just before he left office. So, I guess if you can't beat them you really have no choice but to join them.

To say that the Republican Party is acting hypocritically is to suggest that there is a seperate set of laws applying only to Republicans.

The blathering Senator Schumer has held numerous press conferences this week on the matter, at least one of which included Yellowcake Joe right there on the stage. Schumer is, of course, calling for Rove's security clearence to be stripped. But the Sun is pointing out that his position has changed drastically since the law was passed in 1982.

...in 1982 Mr. Schumer was one of 32 House members who voted against the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, the law at the center of the investigation that has swept up Mr. Rove and other White House officials.

A spokesman for Mr. Schumer, Israel Klein, said the senator has been consistent. "Senator Schumer, who has been a longtime advocate for whistle-blower rights, felt that the initial law that was passed was a little bit too broad," Mr. Klein said.

Mr. Schumer also denounced the anti-leak legislation Congress passed in 2000. "We should never forget that one of the core purposes of the First Amendment was to prohibit government from suppressing embarrassing information, not criminalizing its release," the senator said. He complained that the measure "would require all current and past government officials to guess at what might be illegal, while the threat of serious jail time hangs over their heads."

Too bad, for Schumer, that the oppressive legislation didn't pass muster with Clinton. He might actually have a leg to stand on in this situation. No doubt, at the time, Schumer opposed the legislation with the idea that someday it might protect a hapless Democrat, and never envisioned that it would be a Republican who would find himself in its crosshairs.

Perhaps Schumer could propose legislation calling for the funding of time machine research so he wouldn't sound like such a politically motivated whiner today.