Posted 12:14 AM by Robert

If Only ... V

Deeper and deeper goes Mr. Berger. The Washington Post reports:

The government source said the Archives employees were deferential toward Berger, given his prominence, but were worried when he returned to view more documents on Oct. 2. They devised a coding system and marked the documents they knew Berger was interested in canvassing, and watched him carefully. They knew he was interested in all the versions of the millennium review, some of which bore handwritten notes from Clinton-era officials who had reviewed them. At one point an Archives employee even handed Berger a coded draft and asked whether he was sure he had seen it.

At the end of the day, Archives employees determined that that draft and all four or five other versions of the millennium memo had disappeared from the files, this source said.

This source and another government official said that archivists gave Berger use of a special room for reviewing the documents. He was examining the documents to recommend to the Bush administration which papers should be released to the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper said that employees closely monitor anyone cleared to review classified presidential materials.

If this is true, it's no wonder that the Kerry campaign and Democratic-leaning media representatives have been panicked.

UPDATE: Maybe there's something to be said for the Kausfiles' observation that although the Kerry campaign is saying they didn't know about the Berger investigation until a few days ago, the Big Me says he had better sources but didn't let on to his party's presumptive nominee:

Clinton said he has known about the federal probe of Berger's actions for several months, calling this week's news a "nonstory."

And did Senator Clinton also know and not tell? How big was the Clintonian conspiracy of silence against Senator Kerry? On the other hand, who would still be so foolish as to believe Bill Clinton about anything?