It is a disturbing pattern of behavior among senior officials in the Bush administration. Top officials leave the administration after becoming alarmed over malfeasant behavior by the president and his minions. But instead of speaking out, they keep quiet — until they write a book or find themselves testifying at a congressional hearing.
Republicans are quick to slur the patriotism of Democrats who speak out against Bush’s illegal war and who criticize the president. But by any definition, government leaders who stand mute while the president and his men mislead the country and knowingly break the same laws they’ve sworn to uphold are the ones whose patriotism deserves to be questioned.
Bush’s former secretary of state, attorney general, CIA director and their top aides are among those who left in silence.
The most recent example is the former CIA director George Tenet. In his new book, “At the Center of the Storm,” he says was used as a scapegoat in the misinformation campaign the Bush team created to take the country. Now, four years into the war, and with $4 million in his pocket from the book, he’s coming forward with the truth, As Arianna Huffington put it:
[He is] about four years too late. Tenet seems to believe there’s a major distinction between lying and standing by silently while others lie, and then proudly receiving a Medal of Freedom from the liars.
He could have simply resigned and freed himself to “tell the truth.” Tenet acts as if resignation were not an option. But it was. And the passion and anger he displays now in the service of book sales could have been used then in the service of his country
Last week we learned that John Ashcroft resigned as attorney general three years ago at least in part because he and others at the Dept. of Justice believed that the warrantless eavesdropping program was illegal. The fact that someone — the president refuses to say who — sent two of Bush’s top goons, then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and Bush’s chief of staff, Andy Card, to Ashcroft’s hospital bed to try to strong-arm him into changing his mind may have also been a factor:
The sickbed visit was the start of a dramatic showdown between the White House and the Justice Department in early 2004 that, according to [congressional testimony by former DOJ official James] Comey, was resolved only when Bush overruled Gonzales and Card. But that was not before Ashcroft, Comey, [FBI director Robert] Mueller and their aides prepared a mass resignation, Comey said. The domestic spying by the National Security Agency continued for several weeks without Justice approval, he said.
The wiretapping and the hospital visit were too much for Comey:
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