Dan Rather and Democrats jump to leaky conclusion

CBS Falsely Fingered GOP for Clinton Grand Jury Leak

Despite misleading statements by major Democratic politicians and media figures such as Dan Rather, it was not .a Republican who leaked the news on the last day of the Democratic National Convention that a new grand jury is investigating President Clinton.

Nor, as Dan Rather implied, is Independent Counsel Robert Ray a Republican.

The day after the August 17 leak, Federal Appeals Court Judge Richard Cudahy, a Democrat appointed by President Carter, admitted that he unthinkingly let the information slip to an Associated Press reporter who was interviewing him.

On August 22, the liberal Washington Post editorialized, "By owning up-immediately to his misstep, senior Judge Cudahy set an example that White House officials and ardent Al Gore supporters-who wasted no time blasting Mr. Ray, for the story-would do well to follow."

On August 19, the Post had reported, "White House officials were unwilling to acknowledge yesterday that they had rushed to judgment about the source of the grand jury information. `We may never know the full story here,' said spokesman Jake Siewert. On Thursday, he had said `the timing of the leak reeks to high heaven. Given the past record of the independent counsel, it's hardly surprising."'

Gore campaign spokesman Chris Lehane said on the 17th, "The timing of this raises questions." Gore campaign communications director Mark Fabiani said, "Americans are going to have serious questions about the timing of today's leak. People are wise by now to these Ken Starr-like tactics."

Sen. John Breaux (D.-La.) said the leak was "the most political act that I think I have seen in my lifetime." Former Texas Gov. Ann Richards (D.) insisted, "I'm going to tell you that the Bush people are really good.... They leak that stuff like crazy and then stand back and say, `Oh, my, my,' how badly they feel about that, that should never have happened. And you will never find their fingerprints on it."

Said Dan Rather on "CBS Evening News" on August 17, "The story is that Republican-backed special prosecutor Robert Ray, Ken Starr's successor, has a new grand jury looking into possible criminal charges against the President growing out of Mr. Clinton's sex life."

Reported Rather's CBS colleague Jim Stewart, " `It's a hatchet job,' said one Justice official." Rather wrote in a column for CBS' website, "You don't have to be a cynic to note that this has all the earmarks of a carefully orchestrated politically motivated leak. The Republican-backed Robert Ray is sponsored by a three-judge panel that must periodically decide whether Ray's investigation should continue. This panel features two federal judges backed by the Jesse Helms wing of the Republican Party."

On CNN "Inside Politics," August 17, Rep. Barney Frank (D.-Mass.) said, "The only thing I can think of is that Ken Starr realized how badly he had misbehaved and how terrible his reputation was going to look, so when he recommended a successor, he tried to come up with someone who would be a bigger jerk than he was, so he would not go down in the history as one of the most abusive prosecutors ever, and I think Mr. Ray has borne that out."

But if Ray is a big jerk, he is a big jerk with a long history in the Democratic Party.

Now an independent, Ray ran for the New York City school board in 1993 as a registered Democrat. Ray, who graduated from Princeton in 1982, was " `almost a Kennedyworshipping liberal Democrat,' " in the words of an exroommate, as reported by the March 8 issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly. "Ray was inspired to go to Princeton by `Dollar Bill' Bradley '65, a Democratic candidate for President this year," the Weekly reported.

On March 25, the New York Rmes reported, "He wrote an admiring senior thesis on JohnF. Kennedy and the Peace Corps:'

The Times also reported, "Mr. Ray speaks with great pride about his grandmother, Rose Ray, whom he describes as a local Democratic Party leader-`kind of a power. broker'-in Brooklyn in the '30s."

L. Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, has demanded that Dan Rather apologize for his misleading reporting on the grand jury leak, but, so far, Rather has refused.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Sep 1, 2000
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