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Classified Documents and Gooses

There’s an old saying: What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

That message should be embroidered and placed on the wall of every politician everywhere.

I’m specifically referring to Joe Biden and the discovery of classified documents from his days as vice president. Hmm. Let’s see. Wasn’t that, uh, five years ago? And now it seems today more such documents have been found in another office.

Today’s breaking news reported: “The classification level, number and precise location of the additional documents was not immediately clear. It also was not immediately clear when the additional documents were discovered and if the search for any other classified materials Biden may have from the Obama administration is complete.

“Biden aides have been sifting through documents stored at locations beyond his former Washington office to determine if there are any other classified documents that need to be turned over to the National Archives and reviewed by the Justice Department, the person familiar with the matter said.”

I bet they have been searching. Frantically, in fact.

When your Justice Department – at the urging of the (acting) national archivist – launches a full-scale attack on a former president’s residence and drags his name through the mud about his handling of confidential material, you’d better make sure your hands are clean, Mr. President Biden.

And, of course, they aren’t. Whose are?

I wrote about this earlier when Donald Trump was vilified for the discovery of classified materials at Mar -a-Lago after a raid by the FBI. Not a group of smarmy college boys sifting through the papers President Trump took with him, but a full-scale onslaught by weaponized men who were probably fighting over who would be the first to check Melania’s closet.

Sorry for the cynicism. But what was good for Trump should be good for Biden. Although my real belief is that it should not happen to either man.

I personally don’t care about these classified documents, and I’m guessing no one else does. Except the acting national archivist Debra Steidel Wall. I can’t be sure, but I believe it was Ms. Wall who first raised concerns about what President Trump took with him when he left D.C. for Florida. All those boxes being carried to the waiting helicopter, you know.

By the way, she is still the acting director, despite being appointed to the archival position in May last year. Maybe that’s why we haven’t heard a hue and cry from her about the Biden discovery.

It’s starting to feel like the closets of all living past presidents and vice presidents need to be opened and investigated. Who knows what will be found there? In fact, Ms. Wall should be demanding it.

I’m guessing the truth about these documents, which haven’t been of that much concern in the past, is that they were packed in a hurry by people who didn’t know or care what was in them. All they knew is they had to get them out of the White House quickly. No time to sift through for sensitive material.

Isn’t that how life often works? Don’t ask too many questions. Just get the job done.

Allow me to jumble my metaphors and say that it feels like there are too many mountains being made of too many molehills when it comes to these so-called classified documents. But when that happens to one goose, it should happen to all ganders in the same manner.

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