Clarke part LI

Recall the moralistic ex governor and 911 commissioner James Thomson berating Richard Clarke on March 24 2004

MR. THOMPSON: But what it suggests to me is that there is one standard -- one standard of candor and morality for White House special assistants and another standard of candor and morality for the rest of America. I don't get that.
MR. CLARKE: I don't think it's a question of morality at all. I think it's a question of politics.
MR. THOMPSON: Well, I -- (interrupted by applause).

The applause and Gov Thompson's exit from the chamber was delightful, but I didn't understand how he could claim to not understand that special assistants to the president emphasize the positive.

Now I understand what he meant by "one standard of candor and morality for White House special assistants and another standard of candor and morality for the rest of America. " Clearly he thinks special assistants should be so candid that they are fired. Evidently, he thinks it is ok for other Americans, like say former Governor James R. Thompson, to take large amounts of money for protecting shareholders from keptomanagers without bothering to protect shareholders.

Frank Aherns reports in the Washington Post

Press tycoon Conrad M. Black and other top Hollinger International Inc.
officials pocketed more than $400 million in company money over seven years and
Black's handpicked board of directors passively approved many of the
transactions, a company investigation concluded. A report by a special board committee singled out director Richard N. Perle, a former Defense Department official, who received $5.4 million in bonuses and compensation. The report said Perle should return the money to the Chicago company.

The report also criticized the board's audit committee, which includes former Illinois governor James R. Thompson and former ambassador Richard R. Burt, for failing to question Black's large management fees

Indeed a very different standard of morality than Richard Clarkes'.

I guess most people will be more interested in the request that Richard Perle return the 5.4 million dollars. What with this and the FBI leaking that it has been investigating Feith's office it has not been a good week for the neocon super hawks.

Perle came up with a pearl in which he seems to have vehemently denied that he did any work at all in exchange for the $ 5.4 million

"Perle did not return a call to his office and e-mails asking for comment yesterday. He said in an interview in May that any suggestion "that actions or decisions taken by me involved a quid pro quo for compensation I received . . . is absolutely false." "

That does mean that he claims that he provided no services to Hollinger international in exchange for his generous compensation doesn't it ? Such Candor.

update: I am no fan of ex gov Thompson on the other hand
"Keyes told a New York radio station Monday that homosexuality is "sexual hedonism." In response, the show's host asked if Mary Cheney, Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter, was a "sexual hedonist." Keyes replied: "Of course she is.""I think those views are not only extreme but offensive," former Gov. James Thompson told reporters during a state delegation breakfast today."I think the people of Illinois will find those remarks offensive," Thompson said, "and I think it's an offense to the political process that we have to suffer a candidate on our ticket who says things like that.""