Pacific Views

Another one of those interesting comparisons.

The story is all over the place about how the US treasury department is asking for an investigation into whether former cabinet member Paul O'Neill has leaked classified documents. Ex-treasury secretary O'Neill is a principal source for an unflattering new book on the first two years of Dubya's adminstration.

This magpie finds it really interesting that it took only a couple of days for an investigation into O'Neill to be requested. It took a couple of months for the administration to start an investigation of the Valerie Plame leak. We wonder whether the difference between the two responses is that fact that the Plame leaker was apparently in the White House — and locating that leaker could only cause political problems for Dubya. On the other hand, Paul O'Neill (or whoever the supposed leaker is) is on the outside. We suspect that the White House sees an investigation as an effective way to shut O'Neill up, and to use the issue of whether classified information has been revealed as a way to turn public attention away from what O'Neill has revealed about how the prez operates.