Everybody in the news media is in a tizzy because, they say, President Bush authorized Scooter Libby to "leak" classified material to a NY Times reporter.
According to the Los Angeles Times, "President Bush personally authorized leaking classified information."
The Boston Globe story starts out "President Bush authorized the leak of a classified intelligence report about Iraq to a New York Times reporter."
And the New York Times tells us that "President Bush authorized Vice President Dick Cheney in July 2003 to permit Mr. Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., to leak key portions of a classified prewar intelligence estimate on Iraq."
And so on. The problem is, people, that a "leak" is, by definition, an unauthorized disclosure of information. According to Dictionary.com, to "leak" is "[t]o disclose without authorization or official sanction: leaked classified information to a reporter."
So, if the President authorized the disclosure, then by definition it isn't a "leak". And the fact that it was classified information ain't a big deal either, given that Bush, as the Post notes, "had the unquestionable authority to approve the disclosure of secret CIA information to reporters".
It will take a day or two for everyone to realize that the President's action was neither illegal nor a leak, and they they will start searching around for some reason why it was still "bad". Then it will likely come out that Presidents have been doing this sort of thing since time immemorial. Then everyone will move on to Katie Couric or something equally important.
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