David Gergen suprised me on Newsnight

[neoteric lefty]

Now, I do not dislike David Gergen, I just do not agree with his viewpoints and a few times that I have seen him being interviewed, he likes to play politics for the Right. However, tonight I was very suprised. He spoke very well and very concisely about the Berger leak. He was honest, calm, and to the point about the information he knew about the case (yes, actual information, not assumptions, Mr. Hannity and Ms. Coulter, you dopes). I respect him for what he did tonight. Good interview.

[LTR]

1. Gergen is a conservative, but he plays it fair

He has also worked with Berger, while working in the White House in the Clinton years.

Still, he's a pretty straight shooter.

I don't mind conservatives on TV, so long as they don't cram their ideology down our throats and call it news. Lou Dobbs is another example of a conservative with integrity.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. Gergen is a traditional Conservative. He's no right winger....

and can give a VERY analysis, even of Clinton.

He worked in Clinton's White House and got along well while he was there.

[Leilani]

3. He was also on the Today show

& defended Sandy Berger...did not see it, but read about it.

He questioned the timing of this leak, & said the entire thing is overblown.

[blm]

4. Gergen is one of those rare Republicans. One with integrity.

.

[Cha]

5. But what did he say?

That it wasn't a big deal?

[billbuckhead]

6. David Gergen is one of the few Republican patriots

Mark Shields trained him.

[ochazuke]

7. Other Mark Shields Students

I can't remember their names now, but two other right-wing commentators who where the non-Shields part of so-and-so and Shields on the McNiel Report-Newshour.

They graduate to some other part of the media, leaving the liberal guy behind. What is this? I guess PBS gives the stink or respectability to a conservative.

[neoteric lefty]

8. He said a few things...

1) That the timing of the leak was VERY suspicious. The incident happened 9 months ago and Berger's attorney wanted assurances from the Justice Dept. that there would be NO leaks, especially right before the 9/11 commission report coming out which is exactly what happened yesterday.

2) That all the rumors of him stuffing the papers into his sock (or jock :)) and such were flat out wrong. Gergen said Berger did two things, both of which were against the rules for confidential papers. He made notes, which you cannot do, in preparation for his testimony for the 9/11 commission which was to occur days later. He also took COPIES of the classified papers with him by mistake. The originals remained in the National Archive and were viewed by the 9/11 commission. Gergen said Berger broke the rules but was not political or malicious about it.

[calimary]

9. He said a mouthful. I posted this elsewhere - I was REALLY impressed.

I realized while I was watching him talk to Aaron Brown that I was actually wondering how soon before the republi-CONS put a hit out on David Gergen. Gotta be some dirt in there that they can use to discredit him with. He's their worst enemy in this. It was VERY CLEAR that Gergen did NOT get their memo. He said all the wrong things (at least from their point of view). ALL the wrong things:

About the timing which he bald-facedly said could be regarded as suspicious, and for the reason he also specified - to draw fire away from Thursday's expected release of the 9/11 Commission's report.

About the character of Sandy Berger - unimpeachable, says he knows him well, respects the heck out of him, AND THEN proceeded to spell out in some detail how Sandy Berger worked almost literally around the clock during what we now know as the run-up to the Millennium terrorist threats, and Gergen REPEATEDLY stated that Berger "STOPPED THE ATTACKS." He must have repeated that maybe three or four times.

And to add insult to injury, he flat-out stated that "these people should be THANKING Sandy Berger for all his hard work because (repeating yet again) HE STOPPED THE ATTACKS.

FURTHERMORE, Gergen referred back to ALL the republi-CON puffing, which is, I think, the phrase he used, or maybe even "unnecessary puffing" by those who had just been shown in videotaped clips, fulminating about how awful this was and how it was such a serious breach of national security - you could see all the usual suspects, Dennis Hastert coming to the mike with the coterie of gop henchmen - tom delay, and others, all really indignant and frowny-looking, and then the senators - including rick santorum and - our dear darling Georgia CHICKENHAWK saxby "I'm more patriotic having skirted Vietnam than Max Cleland who lost three limbs in the war there" chambliss. And then, here's David Gergen, referring back to those same people he says were hyperventilating about it (my phrase) when he said a) a second time that they should be THANKING Sandy Berger because he - repeat yet again - STOPPED THE MILLENNIUM ATTACK.

He specifically described all the uproar as just that, uproar, and much ado about nothing. He said they were going way overboard and that there's "a lot less here than meets the eye." Those were, in fact, his closing comments, and those, too, were a repeat from earlier in the interview.

He not only vouched vigorously for Sandy Berger's character, but he gave himself a little bit of a ribbing when he pointed out that this was certainly sloppy, and mentioned that he himself ought to know because he had that problem, being sloppy. He said he could understand how you have papers all over the desk and at the end you scoop 'em all up and put 'em away in your folder and then - Gergen said - he probably LOST a couple of 'em. He pointed out again that he thought this was just sloppy.

He further said that Berger was there, to begin with, because as part of what was then his anticipated testimony before the 9/11 Commission, that the commission asked him to go back and thoroughly review his notes of the Millennium threat and what was done - (to do what, class?) STOP THE ATTACK. So he was carrying out instructions he'd been given from the panel.

AND - Gergen also pointed out, repeatedly, that these were copies. COPIES. C-O-P-I-E-S of stuff that is STILL in the National Archives, stuff that was ALL seen by the 9/11 Commission, and ALL made available, and all still there, now. Gergen said there was NEVER anything out of any of this that was kept back from, or hidden from, or disallowed to the 9/11 Commission, and that they'd seen everything there. This, he said, and the missing papers, were copies of stuff that the commission absolutely did get to see. So basically no damage done - GERGEN SAID.

As for Aaron Brown, he introduced Gergen as somebody who ought to know, having advised four presidents, Nixon, Reagan, bush 1 and Clinton. The CLEAR inference here was that this, like with Richard Clarke, presents a picture of someone who is very non-partisan, having worked for both camps, and presidents of both parties.

So, all in all, I thought it was rather even-handed, even excellent for Sandy Berger. David Gergen was really definite about these things. No hemming and hawing and parsing his words and grasping about, verbally, for "a way to put this" that would shade it with other meanings in any way. He was very straightforward, and the republi-CONS probably hate his guts this evening. Probably revoked his VIP pass to their convention next month. EVERYTHING David Gergen said HURT their case. EVERYTHING. If Sandy Berger's attorney was at trial about this, he'd have David Gergen as his star witness.