More Leaked Secrets by G.O.P. Leaders…

By Scott Horton

Over at ABC News, Justin Rood reports that in addition to the leaks from the White House to back Gonzales, from Gonzales and from Minority Leader Boehner, now we have a very striking leak of highly classified information from Rep. Pete Hoekstra. And most interestingly, the leak was published by the New York Post. Both Hoekstra and the Post have been in the vanguard of calling for investigations into and punishment of leakers of highly classified information–themselves excluded, of course.

ABC News reports:

In an opinion article published in the New York Post Thursday, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., reported the top-secret budget for human spying had decreased–the type of detail normally kept under wraps for national security reasons.

“The 2008 Intelligence Authorization bill cut human-intelligence programs,” Hoekstra wrote in the piece, in which he also criticized “leaks to the news media.”

Formerly the chairman of the intelligence committee, Hoekstra is now its highest ranking Republican. In its recent budget authorizations, that committee kept from public view all figures and most discussion of spending on such classified items as human spying.

Don’t expect any enforcement action, however. Investigations are launched only when the leak suspect is thought to be a critic or opponent of the administration. And Hoekstra is as loyal a Bushie as you’ll ever find.