Naivete shattered

They believed in him.  They REALLY believed.  He was going to ride into Washington on a white steed and undo all of the evil things perpetrated by their enemy, King George the Dim.  He was their candidate.  He was their guy.

Funny how "change" (or, as I called it during the election cycle, the DoublePlusGoodHopeChange) didn't change a thing.

The Justice Department's decision to subpoena a New York Times reporter this week has convinced some press advocates that President Obama's team is pursuing leaks with the same fervor as the Bush administration.

James Risen, who shared a Pulitzer Prize for disclosing President George W. Bush's domestic surveillance program, has refused to testify about the confidential sources he used for his 2006 book "State of War: The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration."

"The message they are sending to everyone is, 'You leak to the media, we will get you,' " said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. In the wake of the Bush administration's aggressive stance toward the press, she said, "as far as I can tell there is absolutely no difference, and the Obama administration seems to be paying more attention to it. This is going to get nasty."

Waaaaa! The nerve of Il Duce!  How dare he and his dastard administration investigate a member of the Fourth Estate for something as petty as the exposure of classified information!

It's no secret that I am no fan of Il Duce.  But he scores a win here.  I've been waiting for years for SOMEONE in Washington to take leaks of classified information seriously.  It started with Daniel Ellsberg and The Pentagon Papers and has continued unabated since.  And never, EVER, has the Justice Selective Prosecution of Only Those We See Fit to Persecute Department had the cojones to prosecute.  If you or I...you know, the mundanes, as William Grigg has aptly named us....were to leak classified information, we'd spend the rest of our lives in Leavenworth sharing an intimate cell with a guy named Bubba who considers himself our "boyfriend".

But the press, the Sainted Protectors of our Nation, THEY can leak classified information with impunity and, rather than receive punishment, they become famous.

I, for one, hope that has changed.  Congrats, Duce.  You got this one right.

And, to Big Media, let me just say, "Bubba says hi."