July 21, 2004
WHAT'S BERGER'S HISTORY WITH FROGS?:
Berger on the grill (Tony Blankley, July 21, 2004, Townhall)
The first line of rhetorical defense was laid down early Tuesday morning on the "Today Show" by metropolitico-journalist David Gergen -- former advisor or staffer to Presidents Nixon, Reagan and Clinton, and one of the designated wise men of Washington. "I think it's more innocent than it looks ... I have known Sandy Berger for a long time ... He would never do anything to compromise the security of the United States." Mr. Gergen added, "it is suspicious" that word of the investigation emerged just as the September 11 commission is about to release its report, since "this investigation started months ago."This doubtlessly heartfelt defensive effort was actually slightly counterproductive. By asserting that it was more innocent than it looked, he let any doubters know that the events looked not innocent, even to friend David Gergen.
Moreover, as he didn't offer any hard evidence to justify his suspicion of innocence, he was left with offering evidence of good character -- which is marginally probative, but rarely persuasive in this age of so many fallen idols and clay-feeted men.
He simply asserted the point commonly argued in Pall Mall clubs in London in the 1950s during their plague of turncoat spies: "As a member of my club, he is a good chap, and a chap like that doesn't do a thing like that -- or if he does, he must have a bloody good reason for doing so." (NOTE: I am not even suggesting espionage or disloyalty of any sort by Mr. Berger. Such a thought is utterly absurd. I am only describing the clubby mentality that often drives well-born men of a certain type to defend their friends against the facts.)
That's the exact tendency Rick Perlstein was going on about, but Mr. Blankley thinks it rather natural and not an indication of unAmericanism to defend people you like. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 21, 2004 7:53 AM
Tribal -- Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs.
Posted by: Uncle Bill at July 21, 2004 9:08 AMAs chummy as things may be between Sandy and the usual crowd in Washington (Morton Kondracke was in near hysterics about the charges on Fox Monday evening), thanks to Bill Clinton's comments in Denver on Monday someone is going to have to ask Kerry if Clinton knew about this probe long before the AP story came out, why didn't you?
If he didn't know, if calls into question his judgment on selecting advisers, as well as the loyalty to Kerry of at least those who previously served in the Clinton Administration. If he did know, then he's faced with being accused of ignoring the fact one of his main foreign policy aides was under criminal investigation.
I would assume to avoid that, the senator will be hiding under a sand dune at Nantucket for the next couple of days, until his vacation is over and (hopefully) something else takes the press' attention away from the weirdness of this story (not quite Wilbur Mills, Fanny Foxe and the Tidal Basin, but close).
Posted by: John at July 21, 2004 9:18 AMT'will be interesting to see how this breach of security is treated in the Senate cloakroom. It surely can't be as tragic or serious as reading Demo memos.
Posted by: Pilgrim at July 21, 2004 10:14 AMI'll have a well done Berger with a Gergen pickle and hold the mad cow disease. No! I don't want fries with that.
Posted by: genecis at July 21, 2004 10:27 AMgenecis:
That comes with a side of Japanese Blowfish? Are you man enough?
USA Today said that Sandy Bergler did this more than ONCE (multiple times). How inadvertant is that?
Posted by: pchuck at July 21, 2004 1:45 PM