Furious

Well, I just read this gem regarding the "Downing Street Memo" hearing. Is there no end to the line of Democrat fools? Now it's Conyers and Rangel, two of the most partisan Democrats in Congress. This "hearing" was just another example of Democrats rehashing old news in the hopes that it will damage the President, and hinder the War on Terror. I have absolutely NO doubt that these people want America to do badly in the Middle East. They do not want America to win, because there is a Republican in the White House. There is nothing in the Downing Street Memo that indicates that Bush lied in order to go to war with Iraq. It is an aide's interpretation of a meeting. The phrase in question is:

"C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action."

JAS ADDS: This "hearing" was such a pathetic exercise in child's play that even Dana Milbank of the Washington Post couldn't help but admit it:

In the Capitol basement yesterday, long-suffering House Democrats took a trip to the land of make-believe.

They pretended a small conference room was the Judiciary Committee hearing room, draping white linens over folding tables to make them look like witness tables and bringing in cardboard name tags and extra flags to make the whole thing look official.

Representative John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) banged a large wooden gavel and got the other lawmakers to call him "Mr. Chairman." He liked that so much that he started calling himself "the chairman" and spouted other chairmanly phrases, such as "unanimous consent" and "without objection so ordered." The dress-up game looked realistic enough on C-SPAN, so two dozen more Democrats came downstairs to play along.

The session was a mock impeachment inquiry over the Iraq war. As luck would have it, all four of the witnesses agreed that President Bush lied to the nation and was guilty of high crimes - and that a British memo on "fixed" intelligence that surfaced last month was the smoking gun equivalent to the Watergate tapes. Conyers was having so much fun that he ignored aides' entreaties to end the session.

The reason for ending the session was not long in manifesting itself:

The session took an awkward turn when witness Ray McGovern, a former intelligence analyst, declared that the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration "neocons" so "the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world." He said that Israel should not be considered an ally and that Bush was doing the bidding of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation," McGovern said. "The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic."

Proving conclusively that George Tenet is not entirely obtuse. Which is more than can be said for a dismayingly large cross-section of Conyers' fellow jackasses:

At Democratic headquarters, where an overflow crowd watched the hearing on television, activists handed out documents repeating two accusations - that an Israeli company had warning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and that there was an "insider trading scam" on 9/11 - that previously has been used to suggest Israel was behind the attacks.

This little escapade inspired none other than DNC Chairman Howie Dean to suddenly morph into the voice of reason:

"We disavow the anti-Semitic literature, and the Democratic National Committee stands in absolute disagreement with and condemns the allegations," Dean said in a statement posted on the DNC Web site.

"As for any inferences that the United States went to war so Israel could 'dominate' the Middle East or that Israel was in any way behind the horrific September 11th attacks on America, let me say unequivocally that such statements are nothing but vile, anti-Semitic rhetoric," Dean said.

"The inferences are destructive and counterproductive, and have taken away from the true purpose of the Judiciary Committee members' meeting," he said. "The entire Democratic Party remains committed to fighting against such bigotry."

Loosely translated, that means "Who let that anti-Semite into our Bush/Christian-bashing 'hearing'?!?" Or, perhaps another purpose of this Romper Room exercise was to provide Dr. Demented with a chance to say something responsible for a change. But that's another (and soon to come) post.

All I can add here is that the flies can't hold court on a compost heap and then complain when the maggots crash the party.

[HT: Captain's Quarters]

UPDATE 6/18: Now it turns out that the so-called "Downing Street Memos" around which Conyers & Co. centered their mock "inquiry" aren't the originals, but retyped copies:

The eight memos — all labeled "secret" or "confidential" — were first obtained by British reporter Michael Smith, who has written about them in The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times.

Smith told AP he protected the identity of the source he had obtained the documents from by typing copies of them on plain paper and destroying the originals.

The AP obtained copies of six of the memos (the other two have circulated widely). A senior British official who reviewed the copies said their content appeared authentic. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secret nature of the material.

If this sounds like last September's fake Killian memos about President Bush's National Guard service, go to the head of the class.

So, what we have here are copies of since-destroyed original memos that don't show Bush "lied about Saddam's WMD" to justify invading Iraq and don't quote any senior British or American officials at all. Meanwhile, independent probes on both sides of the Atlantic have conclusively debunked these claims.

But no investigation can satisfy poisoned minds except those that tell them what they already "know" to be true.

The Democrat Party doesn't need hearings; it needs an army of shrinks.

[Another HT to Cap'n Ed]