Den Beste has a great analysis of the leaked Democratic strategy memo, outlining ways of using Senate Intelligence Committee information for political gain. The best part of the article is a comparison to something that happened during the 1944 election, when Republican presidential candidate Dewey decided not to make supposed intelligence failures leading up to Pearl Harbor an issue in the election, for fear of giving the enemy an idea how much of their codes we had broken.
Here’s the money quote:
Dewey was an American first, a Republican second. I wish that Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa) was an American first, but I am by no means certain. Rockefeller is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Democratic committee staffers appear to have written a document for him describing how to use an investigation into American intelligence regarding Iraqi WMDs to best affect the 2004 election campaign. It’s not clear exactly who wrote it, but Rockefeller acknowledges that it came from his staff, saying that it had not been intended for public release. (I should think not.)
It’s treason, and needs to be called treason. But I hope we’re not surprised. We winked at Clinton betraying his country, selling elections to foreign interests, for eight years. The Democrats are just learning from their hero.