WHITE HOUSE RAIDS 'COOKIE' JAR

Though you may have missed it, the White House was caught dipping in
the computer privacy "cookie jar" last week. Seems the White House
Office of Drug Control Policy was gathering information discreetly
about visitors to the ODCP website. That's illegal; according to
federal law, it's a violation of your privacy.

But here's the kicker: just hours before White House spokesman Joe
Lockhart revealed what the ODCP was doing, he was briefing reporters
about a new "Internet industry initiative aimed at boosting online
privacy through design changes to Web sites and browsing software."

Maybe Dennis Miller, the new ABC Monday Night Football broadcast
addition, can use that bit for his HBO Comedy Series. It's too funny
to pass up.

When we're through laughing about what a mockery this administration
has made of the concept of national leadership, though, we ought to
think about what this latest "bureaucratic snafu" really means.

Over the past seven and a half years, this latest snafu represents
only one of many such snafus. Each time the administration has lied to
us about how it happened, who did it, and what will be "done" about
it.

The script was the same earlier this week. After the "discovery" was
made on the ODCP web site, Lockhart assured us that the administration
would "deal with" its own Internet privacy violation and get to the
bottom of it.

If you're holding your breath, let it out. You'll die long before this
administration ever corrects one of its many "mistakes."

When I heard the White House waxing poetic about privacy in the first
place, "Filegate," the "White House Database," Linda Tripp and a host
of other scandals came immediately to mind. So I don't for a second
believe this new "White House privacy initiative" either; socialists
don't give a damn about privacy. They think "The State" already owns
you anyway.

Meanwhile, independent counsel Robert Ray made an official
announcement Friday about that which most Americans already knew --
though he knows first lady Hillary Clinton is guilty as charged in the
White House "Travelgate" scandal, he can't prove it and so, he said,
it's time to drop the matter altogether.

In my criticism of Ray's decision last week, I advocated closing down
the IC's office immediately.

"If we can't hold anyone responsible for things we know they have
done, then there is little point in wasting more paper, more Internet
server space and millions more in taxpayer money," I concluded then. I
still believe that now.

Oh, I know that Ray -- or anyone else out to do justice on behalf of
the American people -- would get no help from Attorney General Janet
Reno's Justice Department. After all, she has repeatedly refused to
appoint investigators to look into Vice President Al Gore's
questionable fundraising practices stemming back to the 1996 campaign.
Three of Justice's professionals have said there is enough evidence to
warrant a trial (and likely conviction) of Gore.

So it's no wonder that Ray -- though he has "smoking gun"
documentation implicating the first lady -- doesn't want to prosecute
her. He knows it will go nowhere. He knows that, in the end, Mrs.
Clinton will go anywhere she pleases -- as an "unindicted
co-conspirator," as it were.

For her part, Reno knows that she can keep Gore off the hook, just as
she kept Clinton off the hook for "allegedly" committing the exact
same crimes -- and worse. Our only recourse here is for responsible
media organizations to hammer home every single scrap of illegal or
improper behavior discovered about Gore; Clinton's gone in January
anyway. Maybe we can at least work to prevent his protege from taking
over.

Otherwise, the OCDP's Internet privacy snafu this week sounds little
more than more of the same from Scandal Central -- otherwise known as
the Clinton White House.

Is it November yet?