Why Haven’t We Seen The Barrett Report?
I usually try to class myself as one of those who tries to keep up with current events as they happen, but this story completely slipped under my radar screen. If I have not heard or read about it, chances are you haven’t either. All of us could ask the question, “Why hasn’t the MSM been all over it?”, but we all know the answer. If this report ever sees the light of day, Senator Hillary Clinton’s chances of getting elected President are about as good as Howard Dean’s are, and that’s not very good.
Imagine my surprise when I read the following article written by Tony Snow for Town Hall yesterday. This will get you started:
“By all accounts, the 400-page Barrett report is a bombshell, capable possibly of wiping out Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential prospects. At the very least, it would bring to public attention a scandal that would make the Valerie Plame affair vanish into comical insignificance.
Democrats know this. Using provisions in the independent-counsel statute that permit people named in a report to review the allegations against them and file rebuttals, attorneys close to the Clintons have spent the better part of five years reviewing every jot and tittle of the charges arrayed against their clients and friends.
This careful and continuous monitoring of the report explains why Sens. Byron Dorgan, Dick Durbin and John Kerry took the highly unusual step earlier this year of trying to slip into an Iraq-war spending bill an amendment to suppress every word of the Barrett report. (Every other independent counsel finding has been printed in its entirety, with the exception of small sections containing classified material. emphasis mine)
Alert Republicans, pushed by talk-radio listeners and bloggers, managed to short-circuit that effort, but Democrats patiently pursued their goal. They got what they wanted recently, when the House and Senate met to iron out differences in yet another appropriations bill. Democrats inserted language that would prevent public release of the 120 pages of the report listing the Clinton transgressions. They offered what may have looked like a good deal. They promised not to object to letting Barrett continue with any prosecutions already underway.
Republicans negotiators, led by Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., and Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich, took the bait. They agreed to keep the public in the dark about the important stuff in exchange for a big, fat nothing. Unbeknownst to Bond and Knollenberg, Barrett shut down his grand juries three years ago. “
Read Tony’s whole arcticle Publish the Barrett Report Now.
As a lifelong Missouri resident of Missouri, and a supporter of Senator Bond, I have alsways thought he has been doing a good job as the ranking Senator from Missouri. This article makes me wonder if perhaps he is starting to get senile. He seems to have been asleep at the switch that day. You can contact Senator Bond by clicking here, or by calling him at (202) 224-5721. I think we should send a message to Senator Bond, “Beware of Democrats bearing gifts”. I think we should also remind him that it was we who put him in office, and that we can find a Republican replacement for him if he doesn’t wake up.
After reading Tony’s article above, I decided to do a little research and see what else I could find out about “The Barrett Report”. It seems that there has been a good deal written about it, but only in “conservative” circles. Where is the MSM? Oh, I forgot. This story doesn’t help their Liberal and Democrat friends agenda. So here are a few references and excerpts for your reading pleasure.
First, from the Wall Street Opinion Journal dated April 22, 2005, An IRS Cover-Up? where the writer says this about The Barrett Report:
“So what don’t Democrats want everyone to know? We’re told that early on the Barrett probe moved away from Mr. Cisneros and his mistress and focused on an attempted cover-up by the Clinton Administration, especially involving the IRS.”
And Hiding the Cisneros Report, in the same publication on October 7, 2005, where the writer says this:
“One possible motivation isn’t hard to imagine: Senator Clinton is running for re-election next year (never mind any possible Presidential ambitions), and she can’t be excited about the possible release of a report that might reflect poorly on the Clinton Administration’s IRS and Justice Department, especially with the IRS having been run by her friend, Peggy Richardson. Our calls this week to Mr. Kendall and Williams & Connolly for comment on the delays were not returned.”
Followed by A Cover-up of the Barrett Report? in National Review dated November 18, 2005, where Byron York says:
“There has been a major setback for people working to secure the full public release of the report by Clinton-era independent counsel David Barrett. A House and Senate conference committee has agreed on language that could keep key portions of the report secret forever, despite the efforts of Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Wisconsin Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to make it public. Democrats, led by North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, led the fight to keep the report away from public scrutiny.
The conference report gives the judiciary panel that oversees Barrett the authority to “make such orders as are appropriate to protect the rights of any individual named” in Barrett’s report. What that means, in practical terms, is that Section 5 of Barrett’s report, the portion of the document that is thought to be most controversial, dealing with the behavior of the Internal Revenue Service during the independent counsel’s investigation, might never be released.”
Finally from The American Thinker on November 21, 2005, Congressional Omerta, which says this about The Barrett Report:
“What in the world does the Barrett report contain that requires three US Senators and the entire Democratic membership Committee on Government Reform (now that’s chutzpah) to bury? Why did the Conference Committee overseeing IC Barrett agree to keep the most critical part of the report buried after the DC Court of Appeals finally halted the flood of motions by William & Connolly that sought to push the reports release into the 22nd Century?
Americans love a good mystery almost as much as they love sunshine.Independent Counsel Barrett has fought for disclosure to the very end. The order by a panel of the DC Court of Appeals that the “sealed” Section V of Barrett’s final report be made available to nine named members of Congress for distribution by them to other members and staff is tantamount to tearing out the last chapter in a mystery novel.
The American public will hear of the published-but-restricted contents of Section V via anonymous leak and innuendo, and the redacted portions will be subject to surmise based upon political advantage. The order by the Court of Appeals is a compromise that will satisfy no one.”
I think it is time that we the people should know what’s in this report. After all we paid 20 Million tax dollars for the investigation and the subsequent findings, now PUBLISH THE WHOLE REPORT so we can see for ouselves!
Contact your elected representatives using the Congressional Switchboard at 202-225-3121, before this report is buried and sealed from the public for all time.
