Conservative Chicago Trib demands Cheney answers; WP declares "good leak"

[DeepModem Mom]

Editor and Publisher: 'Chicago Tribune' Demands Cheney Answer Questions on CIA Leak
By E&P Staff
Published: April 11, 2006

NEW YORK The conservative Chicago Tribune editorial board apparently is fed up with Bush administration's explanations of its involvement in the ever-expanding CIA leak case. In an editorial on Tuesday it declared that Vice President Dick Cheney had "been in his bunker long enough. It's time for him to answer some questions--and not in the friendly venue of Fox News."

Instead, he should appear at "an unscripted news conference" where he would take all questions from reporters.

After detailing the latest revelations about "Scooter" Libby claiming that he had authority from Cheney and President Bush to leak a highly misleading portion of an intelligent documents to reporters in 2003, and denials from the White House, the Tribune observed, "So someone is lying. It could be that Libby acted on his own in leaking the information. It could be that Cheney told him to do so without the president's approval. Or it could be that Bush was behind the leak. Those are questions that the Cheney ought to step forward and answer, along with questions about the unmasking of Plame....

"Bush was well within his authority to declassify the report. But for anyone in the administration to misrepresent its conclusions, particularly if the motive was to punish a critic, is an abuse of the public trust on a subject of the gravest urgency--the decision to go to war....

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The Washington Post, on the other hand, in a much-discussed editorial on Sunday, called the Libby 2003 action "The Good Leak."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002315203