Panetta Snags Key Sandy 'Socks' Berger Endorsement

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, Lake's deputy before becoming national security adviser himself, said that Panetta "was part of the decision-making process for every single issue we were dealing with, whether this was in the Oval Office with the president or the Cabinet Room -- the Middle East, Kosovo, China. He was a part of a small group of people who advised the president how to proceed on strategy and substance."

That alone is enough to disqualify him.

If you need further evidence, consider this.

WOULD you ask your accountant to perform brain surgery on your child? That's the closest analogy I can find to the choice of Democratic Party hack Leon Panetta to head the CIA.

Earth to President-elect Obama: Intelligence is serious. And infernally complicated. When we politicize it - as we have for 16 years - we get 9/11. Or, yes, Iraq.

The extreme left, to which Panetta's nomination panders, howled that Bush and Cheney corrupted the intelligence system. Well, I worked in the intel world in the mid 1990s and saw how the Clinton team undermined the system's integrity.

Al Qaeda a serious threat? The Clinton White House didn't want to hear it. Clinton was the pioneer in corrupting intelligence. Bush was just a follow-on homesteader.

Now we've fallen so low that left-wing cadres can applaud the nomination of a CIA chief whose sole qualification is that he's a party loyalist, untainted by experience.

The director's job at the CIA isn't a party favor. This is potentially a matter of life and death for thousands of Americans. But the choice of Panetta tells us all that Barack Obama doesn't take intelligence seriously.

Mark my words: It'll bite him in the butt.

Hot Air links. Thanks!

Mealy-mouthed Excuse of the Day

Leave it to The Pantsuit to pull one of these lame excuses and play word games as to why she now has convicted criminal Sandy Berger as an adviser. It doesn't appear she pulled off that phony cackle like she did on the talking-head shows last Sunday.

"He has no official role in my campaign. He's been a friend for more than 30 years. But he doesn't have any official role," she insisted.

Asked if Berger had an "unofficial" role, Clinton told USA Today, "I have thousands of unofficial advisers . . . and, you know, I appreciate all of that. But he has no official role in my campaign."

Clinton, who traveled across Iowa yesterday touting her new economic plan, was on the defensive for the continuing connection to her old friend, former President Bill Clinton's national security adviser.

Among those "thousands" of unoffical advisers, how many are convicted criminals who were busted purloining National Archive document just before you husband testified before the 9/11 Commission?

Texas Senator John Cornyn had the understatement of the day.

"I think anyone who would surround themselves with advisers like that is demonstrating bad judgment, and I think Sen. Clinton should reconsider," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).

Mrs. Clinton Hires Criminal Berger as Security Adviser

A supreme arrogance has enveloped the Clinton campaign, and you really have to question the thought process behind hiring convicted criminal Sandy Berger as a top adviser.

The man should be in prison, never mind working on apresidential campaign.

Sandy Berger, who stole highly classified terrorism documents from the National Archives, destroyed them and lied to investigators, is now an adviser to presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Berger, who was fired from John Kerry’s presidential campaign when the scandal broke in 2004, has assumed a similar role in Clinton’s campaign, even though his security clearance has been suspended until September 2008. This is raising eyebrows even among Clinton’s admirers.

“It shows poor judgment and a lack of regard for Berger’s serious misdeeds,” said law professor Jonathan Adler of Case Western Reserve University, who nonetheless called Clinton “by far the most impressive candidate in the Democratic field.”

Adler told The Examiner that it is “simply incomprehensible to me that a serious contender for the presidency would rely upon him as a key foreign policy advisor.”

He added: “If Senator Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee, at some point she will begin to receive national security briefings that will include sensitive information. At such a point, continuing to keep Berger on board as a key advisor, where he might have access to sensitive material, would be beyond incomprehensible.”

The Clinton campaign declined to comment.

Berger has admitted stealing documents from the National Archives in advance of the 9/11 Commission hearings in 2003. The documents, written by White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, were a “tough review” of the Clinton administration’s shortcomings in dealing with terrorism, Clarke’s lawyer told the Washington Post.

On several occasions, Berger stuffed highly classified documents into his pants and socks before spiriting them out of the Archives building in Washington, according to investigators. On one occasion, upon reaching the street, he hid documents under a construction trailer after checking the windows of the Archives and Justice Department buildings to make sure he was not being watched.

H/T's LGFers Killian Bundy and BeerForMyHorses.

Image via Rush.

Berger Forfeits Law License

Convicted criminal Sandy Berger has forfeited his license to practice law. He should have forfeited his freedom, but since he's a Democrat, he only got a slap on the wrist for purloining National Archive documents.

"I have decided to voluntarily relinquish my license," he said. "While I derived great satisfaction from years of practicing law, I have not done so for 15 years and do not envision returning to the profession. I am very sorry for what I did, and I deeply apologize."

In giving up his license, Mr. Berger avoids being cross-examined by the Board on Bar Counsel, where he risked further disclosure of specific details of his theft. The agreement is expected to be formalized today.

Mr. Berger, national security adviser from 1997 to 2001, was convicted of removing documents from the Archives in 2005 while preparing to testify before the September 11 commission.

Captain Ed notes how Henry Waxman, who would investigate what Republicans had for breakfast if given the opportunity, has zero interest in pursuing the matter further.

Interestingly, Henry Waxman wants to block further investigation by Justice. The man who made investigations into supposed government malfeasance his and the Democrats' major campaign theme and who now chairs the House Oversight Committee suddenly wants to avoid further investigation into a real crime and cover-up, one that impacted our review of the worst attack on American soil. I'd call that at least a magnitude more important than whether Dick Cheney listened to energy producers when he helped develop the administration's energy policy, one of the supposed "scandals" that Waxman has promised to investigate.

I get the feeling were his name Wolfowitz or Gonzales, or if he were a Republican, we'd never hear the end of it. This double standard is truly nauseating.

Michelle Malkin also weighs in.

Sandy Berger Joins GOP

Just kidding, of course. But if he were a Republican, I suppose the media would be interested in this story. Forget that. They'd be obsessed with it. Since he's a Democrat, however, they just don't care.

John Fund asks a lot of interesting questions today, and for some bizarre reason, we are not getting any answers.

Maybe while The Pantsuit is out on the campaign trail having softballs lobbed at her, some intrepid reporter will ask pertinent questions. Though I highly doubt it.

GOP Wants Berger Lie Detector Test

Good luck getting the Justice Department to comply with this request.

Eighteen House Republicans have urged the Justice Department to proceed with a polygraph test for Samuel R. Berger, the former national security adviser who agreed to take the test as part of a plea of guilty of stealing documents from the National Archives.

"This may be the only way for anyone to know whether Mr. Berger denied the 9/11 commission and the public the complete account of the Clinton administration's actions or inactions during the lead-up to the terrorist attacks on the United States," the congressmen said in their letter to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales.

What's in Your Pants?

Nice takedown of Sandy Berger and the Clintons by R. Emmett Tyrrell. Of course, the liberal media has no interest.

What we do know is that the Clinton sleuths now have still more evidence of the Clinton administration's abuse of power and fundamental lawlessness. That administration's public record is replete with the Clintons' obstructing investigations by withholding documents. Just recall Hillary's subpoenaed billing records from the Rose Law Firm that were kept for months from the independent counsel before they appeared magically in her living quarters. Or remember when her aides illegally entered the just deceased Vince Foster's White House office to carry off materials only law enforcement officials should have seen.

The Democrats now repine over a Republican "Culture of Corruption." Well, it did not start with the Republicans. I can find no historic parallel for what Bill Clinton's national security adviser, Mr. Berger, did at the National Archives, and he got off with a misdemeanor.

Sandy Burglar Update

See the report here.

Would have been nice to have a report complete before this bum pled guilty to some very light charges. He should be spending a long stretch in prison.

More here from Jonah Goldberg.