Mr. Bush said: “Leaks of Classified Information Are a Bad Thing”

Bush did vow he would get to the bottom of this. And he has. He was the one at the bottom all along. But we already knew that. He was that creature, that bottom feeder! And he was not alone.
Former Vice President Cheney aide Lewis Libby testified before a grand jury that President Bush had authorized him to leak classified information to reporter Judith Miller in July 2003. At a meeting with business leaders in Chicago on Sept. 30, 2003. That’s just two months later. What was Mr. Bush’s response to questions on this subject a little more than two months later? The transcript follows.

Q: Do you think that the Justice Department can conduct an impartial investigation, considering the political ramifications of the CIA leak, and why wouldn’t a special counsel be better?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Let me just say something about leaks in Washington. There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington. There’s leaks at the executive branch; there’s leaks in the legislative branch. There’s just too many leaks. And if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of.
And so I welcome the investigation. I — I’m absolutely confident that the Justice Department will do a very good job. There’s a special division of career Justice Department officials who are tasked with doing this kind of work; they have done this kind of work before in Washington this year. I have told our administration, people in my administration to be fully cooperative.
I want to know the truth. If anybody has got any information inside our administration or outside our administration, it would be helpful if they came forward with the information so we can find out whether or not these allegations are true and get on about the business.
Yes, let’s see, Kemper — he’s from Chicago. Where are you? Are you a Cubs or White Sox fan? (Laughter.) Wait a minute. That doesn’t seem fair, does it? (Laughter.)
Q: Yesterday we were told that Karl Rove had no role in it –
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
Q: — have you talked to Karl and do you have confidence in him –
THE PRESIDENT: Listen, I know of nobody — I don’t know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I’d like to know it, and we’ll take the appropriate action. And this investigation is a good thing.
And again I repeat, you know, Washington is a town where there’s all kinds of allegations. You’ve heard much of the allegations. And if people have got solid information, please come forward with it. And that would be people inside the information who are the so-called anonymous sources, or people outside the information — outside the administration. And we can clarify this thing very quickly if people who have got solid evidence would come forward and speak out. And I would hope they would.
And then we’ll get to the bottom of this and move on. But I want to tell you something — leaks of classified information are a bad thing. And we’ve had them — there’s too much leaking in Washington. That’s just the way it is. And we’ve had leaks out of the administrative branch, had leaks out of the legislative branch, and out of the executive branch and the legislative branch, and I’ve spoken out consistently against them and I want to know who the leakers are.

We have a problem. We have men in power who can’t remember that they authorized this leak. It had to be a pretty big jump in seizing power which you don’t really have.
Or, you have men in power who will lie. Which do you think is more likely?
You are going further than even Mr. Nixon would. And that is saying a lot.

This is Richard Nixon we’re talking about. His opponent was spreading clear misinformation that he knew to be untrue. And there was a presidential election at stake!
Even so, he kept classified information classified and went down to defeat. Maybe this was because he took national security seriously or maybe it was just because he was too smart to use classified information in a pissing match. Who knows? By contrast, when Karl Rove was faced with a trivial piece of unfriendly spin that had no major consequences for anyone, his first instinct was to systematically call half a dozen reporters and peddle classified information to them even though he didn’t need to. With no apparent qualms at all, he did something that even Richard Nixon with an election on the line wasn’t willing to do.
Welcome to the leadership of the modern Republican party. Who would have thought that one day the White House would be run by someone who made Richard Nixon look responsible and forbearing? {Source}

We all know, you wanted to best your father. And your political father, who was Mr. Nixon. So now you have! Wouldn’t you remember the exact moment you were more “Kingly” than either your father or your mentor? You dared to do what Mr. Nixon did not. And you probably grew up hearing him scream about ‘If only I had let slip the truth about what Mr. Kennedy was saying about the ‘Nuclear Gap”, I should have released that classified information! I would be President!’
I am horrified that we long for those days. I thought that America was suppose to advance, not go back.

“A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy.”

~Theodore Roosevelt~ (R)

Hopefully, the Republican Party is longing for their Grand Ole Party to return. It wasn’t great, but it had hope of becoming one. Until Nixon, Newt, Reagan, Papa Bush and Baby Bush. Maybe there was no hope for the Republicans. But they should have just kept it in the Party, rather than spread it across this great land.