<p>Madeline Albright was never accused or convicted of lying to Congress or covering up for a president (good ole Ollie North) who traded arms for hostages. She put her foot in her mouth once or twice, but probably is a heck of a lot more savy about world affairs and diplomacy than most of the current administration put together, outside of Secretary Rice.</p>
<p>I too remember the attacks on Libya and rounding up the ship hi-jackers in the mid 80’s. They were excellent moves on the part of the Reagan administration. I also remember the more than 200 Marines murdered in their barracks in Lebanon and the same administration having enough brains to know to get out of a conflict in which we would become little more than “policemen” (and targets), a la Iraq.
As for the great Bud McFarland, I remember him pleading guilty to four counts of withholding information from Congress for his role in the Iran-Contra cover-up. He was sentenced to two years’ probation and a $20,000 fine but was pardoned by President George H.W. Bush in the waning hours of his presidency on Christmas Eve 1992 along with the other key players in the scandal.
The great Adm Poindexter was convicted on multiple felony counts on April 7, 1990 for conspiracy, obstruction of justice, perjury, defrauding the government, and the alteration and destruction of evidence pertaining to the Iran-Contra Affair. The convictions were reversed in 1991 on the technical grounds that the prosecution’s evidence may have been tainted by exposure to Poindexter’s testimony before the joint House-Senate committee investigating the matter, in which Poindexter’s testimony was compelled by a grant of ‘use immunity’. The prosecution was not able to re-try the case.</p>
<p>Yep, all “great Americans” who would have better served the nation by reviewing the Honor Code and our nations laws once or twice after leaving the academy. Preserving the public trust and national security are not mutually exclusive. People like that tend to make us less secure in the end, not more secure. Our National Security Council most certainly will not “function a lot better” staffed with felons.</p>