Fat Cat Pat Wants 42 Years: Running Again in 2010 
By Rob Roper

It doesn't come as a shock that Pat Leahy announced a seventh run for US Senate. He's been inside the Beltway for his entire adult life, and has no life in the real world outside of Washington. 

But, before the campaign begins, here is something to consider. At a press conference earlier this year calling for a Nonpartisan Commission Of Inquiry to look into some of the last administrations actions, the Senator said, "I also believe that, in order to restore our moral leadership, we must acknowledge what was done in our name.  We cannot turn the page until we have read the page." (Full press release)

In that same spirit of reading the page before we turn it, the Vermont Republican Party calls on Senator Patrick Leahy to demand that the sealed records regarding the investigation of Leahy's leaking of classified material, which reportedly caused the death of at least one undercover operative and ultimately led to Leahy's forced resignation from the Senate Intelligence Committee, be opened. Vermonters, after all, deserve the chance to acknowledge what was done in our name. 

Rumors abound about the consequences of Leahy's leak, but, twenty-two years later we still don't know the truth. With 1500 to 1800 Vermonters about to be deployed to Afghanistan (story) and the safety and security of these soldiers on the line, such a disclosure, to quote the Senator again, "would shed light on what mistakes were made so that we can learn from these errors and not repeat them." Our fighting men and women deserve no less.

Given that the Senator sees no harm in publicly airing all the dirty laundry surrounding the more recent incidents at Guantanamo Bay, injecting political hot potatoes directly into the middle of our tensions with the Muslim world, surely he could see no harm in divulging the truth about what happened two decades ago and cannot justify continued secrecy. 

So, before we "turn the page," we hope Senator Leahy will take this opportunity as we celebrate our patriotism on this Fourth of July to "restore his moral leadership," and remove any sense of hypocrisy or self-centered entitlement from his campaign. As the Senator says, "We have had successful oversight in some areas, but on these issues, we have remained too much in the dark."

Rob Roper is the former Editor of the True North Website