Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Time To Put Some Fingers In The Levy
Michelle Malkin, with a lot of help, was advocating on Monday an aggressive stance towards the recent spate of leaks of classified information from the government. I'm thinking two things:
- This is a two-edged sword. The bell has rung and the administration is being made to look bad, even if I don't think it really is. Too aggressive a response will smell of cover-up. The administration has to get well in front of the information curve here before they can get seriously aggressive.
- We don't know the source of the leaks, yet. If they are in appointed positions, this doesn't really apply, but the regulations that govern civil service, designed to protect government employees from discrimination on the basis of party affiliation also create a heck of an opportunity for precisely this kind of mischief. They make it extremely difficult for the top management to build in loyalty.
There is a huge problem here. I just hope we can approach it broadly and look at the underlying issues, not just the immediate problems.
