It Depends on the Meaning of the Word "Classified"

Remember a few weeks ago when Senate Minority Leader "Dirty Harry" Reid smeared Michigan Appeals Court Judge Henry Saad, President Bush's nominee to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in classic McCarthyite fashion by blurting that he'd peeked (illegally) in Saad's confidential FBI dossier and found "a problem" that should justify the filibuster of his nomination?

Well, he's not the only Donk who puts party above everything else. So determined are Democrats to strangle the nomination of John Bolton to the post of United States Ambassador to the United Nations that they are more than happy to expose national security secrets perhaps critical to the conduct of the GWOT if it means the chance to continue the fishing expedition that so far has netted only a pile of old boots.

Democratic U.S. Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee, who are pressing to see the unredacted NSA reports requested by U.N. ambassador nominee John Bolton, attempted to get colleague Senator Jay Rockefeller to spill what he knew about the NSA documents, according to a Republican staffer on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Understand that Rockefeller, along with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, are legally barred from disclosing the classified information that is disseminated in their committee. The responsibility with which these men are entrusted forbid them from using such knowledge, or twisting it, for base partisan purposes.

Moreover, Rockefeller has seen the NSA docs to which his comrades are demanding access, and, though he did not see the names of the nineteen individuals and businesses named therein, he has acknowledged that Bolton was within his perview as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control to request this information.

That's an interesting irony, isn't it? Mr. Bolton requested classified documents for legitimate purposes and to which he was entitled access, and now his Dem Senate enemies, who are not entitled to see these docs, are trying to scam their way to access for the manifestly illegitimate purpose of smearing Mr. Bolton and sabotaging the President's foreign policy.

You'd think that Rocky's fellow Donks would take his word for it. But noooooooo:

[F]olks like Senators Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, and Barbara Boxer have not gone along. Instead, according to the Intelligence Committee staffer, they tried to get Rockefeller to give them some inside information that they could use to further attack and damage Bolton: "The word here [in the committee] was that they wanted Rockefeller to do to Bolton what [Senator Harry] Reid did to that federal judge nominee [Henry Saad]. Rockefeller wouldn't do it. Couldn't do it actually." That's because Rockefeller, as well as Roberts, didn't see the names, either.

"What we're seeing here is the pattern," says a Republican leadership aide. "When the Dems start losing traction, they go to smear tactics. They did with the judges, and they're doing it with Bolton. At some point, you'd think the wavering Republicans would just get fed up and send their friends across the aisle a message."

A message like a recess appointment for Mr. Bolton.

Smashing that abominable "compromise" wouldn't be a bad follow up, either.

But one miracle at a time.