At the end of 131 we see something come up that quite a few people have been expecting before now. I always expected to have this surface but just wanted to play with the timing. There will be a lot more to come in future chapters.
Several people commented on the various illegalities committed during the leak of the classified information from 1981. This law was broken or that law was broken. The critical thing is that this is about politics, not the law. The odds of anybody actually going to jail are incredibly low. If this were to actually happen Carl would be dumped from the ticket, so he could ‘focus on fighting the unjust allegations.’ Dumping Carl almost certainly dooms the Bush ticket, no matter who takes Carl’s place. Meanwhile, with Carl out of the way, the spigot of leaked info is shut down, since no more needs to be leaked. The papers and networks will never give up who gave them the info. Carl can’t fight it because he can’t fight a ghost. He is out of politics completely, after he loses reelection. On the other hand, if Carl doesn’t quit all bets are off! Whoever leaked the info will probably be forced to double down. It should be…interesting.
Leaking information is a spectator sport in D.C. It happens on a daily basis, and almost never gets prosecuted. For one thing, the reporters and media have an ironclad get-out-of-jail-free card in the First Amendment. It is nigh on impossible to force a reporter to divulge a source. Politicians and staffers leak info to show how important they are, to impress people, to seal the deal with a girl – information is power and power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. The only sin is in getting caught, which simply proves you aren’t ready to play the game.
The average Washington politician or staffer has the attention span of a beagle. They don’t think of long-term consequences. Long term is the span of the next news cycle. Most of them would sell their mother in a Moroccan bazaar if it bought them favorable coverage on the evening news today. There is no penalty if they do. If they get caught they can weasel out of it based on their ‘principles.’
So, in reality, nothing will happen to whoever leaked Carl’s file. It just won’t happen. If Carl quits the race in disgrace, the spigot gets shut off and his enemies go away happy. The only way it gets worse is if Carl doesn’t go away. Hmmm…what might happen then?
For the readers who commented that a single 60 Minutes episode wouldn’t be enough to fix the problem – of course not! Never said it would. I hope you’re happy now.