Lemons out of lemonade

Too bad for Sandy Berger.  He would have been a good secretary of state, and it seems like a pretty lame scandal to blow a career on.  One would hope every major career ending scandal involved a Faustian deal for ultimate power derailed by a misstep precipated by the tragic blurring of right and wrong.  Or at least some head.  This has neither in a major way.  Anyhow, until someone can come up with any mildly plausible nefarious motive, I will take the bizarro "how did those get there?" defense at his word.  Also, I like his daughter  lot.

That said, Kevin Drum suggested yesterday that the leak wasn't the work of Republican operatives (which the Kerry campaign has just formally suggested, BTW), but the work of Democratic operatives.  If Republicans knew about the Berger issue, and knew it wasn't going away, why wouldn't they wait until October?  At that point, Berger would have been in so deep with the campaign that his sudden departure could have been a major stumbling block.  But what if some thoughtful Kerry operative found out, knew the blow would only be worse later, and decided to leak now?  By doing it right before the 9/11 report, they get to blame it on the Republicans, and lambast them for being callow and playing politics with 9/11.  Berger takes a hit he would take anyway, it can't stick to Kerry for too long...bonus!

Unfortunately, this theory is becoming less enticing by the minute, as the Republican attacks reach a fevered level of pre-meditated ferocity.