Department of Double Standards

Kudos to Congressman Waxman for pointing out the obvious: The U.S. Justice Department has a vehemently partisan agenda.Kansas City Star | 08/08/2004 | Berger probe called a double standard:

A top House Democrat has called on Attorney General John Ashcroft to explain why the Justice Department is cooperating with a congressional inquiry into Sandy Berger's case.

A criminal investigation of the alleged document mishandling is currently ongoing.


Rep. Henry A. Waxman of California, the senior Democrat on the Government Reform Committee, said Friday that the department position regarding Berger, a national security adviser to President Bill Clinton accused of mishandling classified documents, is at odds with the way inquiries tied to the Bush administration have been handled.


“In the investigation into the leak of the identity of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame, officials have said repeatedly that they cannot comment because the matter is currently under investigation,” Waxman wrote to the Justice Department.


He said the policy “is intended to maintain the integrity of the investigation.”


The panel chairman, Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican, called last week on the National Archives and Records Administration to provide materials related to Berger, who has acknowledged he improperly removed documents from the archives last year but said he did so inadvertently.

...Davis' determination to investigate the Berger case has created a dispute with Waxman and other Democrats. They accuse the chairman and the House Republican leadership of applying a double standard since they have rejected Democratic calls to look into the disclosure of Plame's identity and a series of other matters related to the war in Iraq.