Sunday, February 12, 2006

Dean: ''If Cheney Leaked, He Can't Remain in Office'' (UPDATED)

Appearing on Face the Nation today, Howard Dean made the following comments:

"(The) President promised two years ago that he would fire the leaker.
He hasn't kept his promise. Karl Rove is not only still working in the White
House, but he has security clearance. Now it turns out that the vice
president of the United States may have been responsible for those leaks for
political reasons. That is the kind of thing that has not been done to my
knowledge since Aaron Burr was vice president.

I don't think the vice president has any credibility on national security whatsoever, and I think he's in deep trouble. If it turns out that Scooter Libby, who said this
week that his superiors ordered him to leak the information for political
reasons, then this vice president may not be vice president very much longer.

If that's true--his superior is Vice President Cheney. If that is true, Vice President Cheney cannot remain in office."


-from CBS News' Face the Nation. There's a short video clip here. The Secretary of State was also on, but I couldn't make myself look at it.

Update: Barrett Zinn points out in his post on Kos that:
"Elizabeth Bumiller and Bob Shieffer both seemed taken aback by Mr. Dean's forthright acknowledgement of the elephant in the room (no pun intended), but rather than challenging his presumption, they both asked simply whether the VP should step down or be impeached. Dean kept his cool and insisted that it was too soon to say what the proper course of action would be in response to an unproved allegation.

The transcript isn't up yet, but this is the first time I've heard reporters accept without skepticism the notion that Cheney may have commited treason."

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