President Bush promised to hold his White House to a higher ethical standard after the "scandals" invovling President Clinton. I'll mostly let that one go for now. When a CIA operative's identity was leaked, he promised to punish the leaker. That is, until that person turned out to be Vice-President Cheney's Chief of Staff. That is, until his top advisor, Karl Rove, was implicated. Now from the Washington Times, "A clearly incensed President Bush yesterday called the public disclosure of a secret terrorist-tracking program 'disgraceful.'" This relates to tracking of bank records. There are even hints that he wants to go after newspapers that published these reports. I'm sure he would, unless it turned out to be one of his staff.

I'm sure President Nixon felt the same way when Daniel Elsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War. I'm sure Reagan felt the same way about whoever leaked details of the Iran-Contra scandal. This is why we have Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press in this country. To expose what a corrupt government would not want us to see. They are a private check on unmitigated state power. This is not even to say that this particular operation was illegal, but the culture of secrecy which this president would breed is one that is arranged to preclude a disclosure of such wrongs.

So not only are you a continuing hypocrite, Mr. Bush, you just do not understand the constitutional guarantees that our forefathers established and so many men and women have fought and continue to fight to protect.