Pyrrhic Victory

Byron York (link requires subscription) has a piece in the NR headed "Playing Nice-President Bush gave the special counsel all he wanted — which the press, among others, may regret"

The piece compares the response by the Bush White House to the Fitzgerald investigation (minimal) with that of the Clinton White House to Kenneth Starr (all out attack), and questions whether Bush's cooperation has established too forthcoming a standard:

[T]the question is whether, by forcing staffers to sign waivers releasing reporters from any pledges of confidentiality regarding the CIA-leak affair, the White House has set a terrible precedent both for future presidents and for the press. The way in which George W. Bush acceded to Fitzgerald’s demands virtually assures that there will be more, and perhaps increasingly intrusive, leak investigations in the years to come.

The precedent should be of great interest to reporters in Washington who rely on leaks. I hope it causes leaking to dry up. It probably won't, because you probably can't force civil service employees to waive confidentiality, but it might be the first effective technique to stop leaks.

Bush hates the press. He hates leaks. They accuse him of being secretive. But what president hasn't hated to be informed about issues roiling among lower levels of his administration by the press?

The upshot is that journalists are still not sure it was helpful for the NYTimes to have pressed so hard for an investigation. This may be only the first of many cases where we see reporters serving time for contempt. This won't be lost on future presidents, especially when they have the power to pardon people like Libby. I don't know if that power extends to contempt in a particular grand jury proceeding.

Byron York is one of the best reporters around. He is scrupulous in eliminating personal opinion from his reports. He even resisted denouncing Harriet Miers when everybody else at the corner was doing so. Just the facts. And he's thorough.

I respect him a great deal. If reporters had to study casebooks like law students do, he'd be one I'd want to cite.