Citizen Crapola

While the Senate was busily defending the Hagel-Martinez bill from attempts to lend it some nationalistic sanity, there was other nonsense transpiring elsewhere (or, "Meanwhile, back at the ranch"...)

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The foes of the NSA terrorist surveillance program (outside of al Qaeda) took two boomerangs in the face in the past few days.

First, the White House humiliated Crazy Nancy:

Democrats have been screaming and pouting about not being briefed on the NSA's terrorism surveillance programs. Nancy Pelosi complained:

Nancy Pelosi explained to a group of progressive [sic] journalists about a week before the latest NSA stories came out, the briefings have been so heavily classified as to make it hard for Democrats to ignore that characterization, but if the briefings have been so regular, why won't the Administration release the dates and lengths of these allegedly regular briefings?"

That was a cue so pregnant even the Bushies' PR water couldn't help but break:

The Administration has released the docs....The breakdown of pols and number of briefings since October 2001:

SENATE

Intelligence Committee members:

The current chairman, Pat Roberts, R-KS: 10
The top Democrat, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia: 8
A former chairman, now-retired Bob Graham, D-FL.: 4
A former chairman, Richard Shelby, R-AL.: 4
Mike DeWine, R-OH: 2
Orrin Hatch, R-UT: 2
Dianne Feinstein, D-CA: 2
Carl Levin, D-MI: 2
Kit Bond, R-MO: 2

Other senators:

Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-TN: 2
Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV: 2
Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-AK: 1
Top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, Daniel Inouye of Hawaii: 1
A former minority leader, now-retired Tom Daschle, D-SD: 1

HOUSE

Intelligence Committee members:

The top Democrat, Jane Harman of California: 8
A former chairman, now-retired Porter Goss, R-FL: 7
The current chairman, Peter Hoekstra, R-MI: 7
Heather Wilson, R-NM: 3
John McHugh, R-NM: 2
Mike Rogers, R-MI: 2
Mac Thornberry, R-TX: 2
Rush Holt, D-NJ: 2
Anna Eshoo, D-CA: 2
Jo Ann Davis, R-VA: 1
Bud Cramer, D-AL: 1
Leonard Boswell, D-IA: 1

Other representatives:

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA: 6
Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL: 3
Chairman of the Appropriations Committee's defense panel, Bill Young, R-FL: 2
The defense panel's top Democrat, John Murtha of Pennsylvania: 2
Former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-TX: 1 [emphasis added]

Sounds pretty regular to me. Particularly Crazy Nancy's briefings, of which she had twice as many as the Speaker of the House himself. Kinda makes you wonder if Democrats are even conscious of their pathological dishonesty. Guess their Clintonization really is total.

Such is their threadbare angst now that all they have left to complain about is that they couldn't blither and gibber all this classified info on which countless American civilian lives depend to the bloodthirsty jihadis who want to kill us all. I guess as long as bin Laden focuses on massacring Republicans people like Crazy Nancy are fine with it.

Second, the latest tempest in a teapot - the NSA phone call database - was disclosed to at least two FISA judges from day one. Which reduces Donk complaints about that to...well, I guess that the Administration is violating al Qaeda's privacy or something. I mean, the Bushies practice "catch & release" when it comes to illegal aliens, right? So why wouldn't they engage in "listen & delete" when it comes to signals intelligence?

You wait, that'll show up in a Dem ad before November rolls around.

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Speaking of the Speaker, Denny Hastert was so incensed at the White House's crass, ungrateful, summary hosing of his friend and former colleague (and former CIA Director) Porter Goss that in a meeting with Vice President Cheney Hastert tore Big Time a new bunghole. Cheney dutifully shoveled that excrement uphill to his boss, who tried to mollify Hastert by faint praise of Goss in order to persuade the Speaker to not eviscerate General Michael Hayden, Goss' designated successor. Suffice it to say, the former high school wrestling coach was not mollified, and if not for the presence of the Secret Service, might have slapped Dubya into a front facelock.

Writes Bob Novak, Hastert's anger was more than just personal, it was symptomatic:

Critics of Goss claim that, as a legislator, he was a poor administrator (the complaint that habitually follows a high-profile sacking in government). But they do not appreciate the anger Bush generated among Goss' friends in Congress. One senior House Republican, asking that his name not be used, told me: "Porter was unceremoniously kicked in the butt. He was treated with contempt."

Correctly or not, the treatment of Goss has caused speculation in Congress that Bush is making a peace offering to his critics at Langley. A president waging a global war against terror can hardly function with an intelligence agency whose employees make off-the-record speeches against his policies, contribute to his political opponents and leak secrets to the news media. Was getting rid of Goss the equivalent of a white flag of surrender?

Unfair question? Has anybody seen Operation Iranian Freedom warming up in the bullpen?

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John Conyers, the same man who held mock Bush impeachment hearings in the Capitol basement last year, now claims he has no intention of opening a real impeachment inquiry should the Democrats regain control of the House this fall and he rise to the chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee.

Right. And pigs fly out of my ass.

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John Murtha has now had his John Kerry circa 1971/Winter Soldier moment.

"Semper Fi," my fanny.

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Senators Arlen Specter (RINO-PA) and Russ Feingold (D-Leningrad) almost came to blows the other day after a party-line Judiciary Committee vote to sent a Federal Marriage Amendment to the floor for full Senate consideration. And as usual, it was Feingold who once again ran away. Funny, I didn't think Specter's gavel was that big.

You have to marvel at Donk chutzpah, though:

Democrats complained that bringing up the amendment is a purely political move designed to appeal to the GOP's conservative base in this year of midterm elections.

Scandalous, ain't it?

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Grover Norquist, the long-time anti-tax crusader whose halo has become more than a little dented of late, has come up with a good idea for a change: term limits for all members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. If the GOP retains its majorities this fall, that rule has a decent chance of being implimented, at least on the House side where a simple majority is all that is needed for rules changes.

It wouldn't necessarily be a spending restraint panacea. But keeping Members from getting entrenched in the spending pit, and inexorably inured to it, certainly can't hurt.

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And last, but not least, President-in-waiting Hillary Rodham sez that a nationwide dearth of contraceptives, the nefarious plot of eeeeeevil "right-wingers," is to blame for abortion on demand.

Ya know what the perfect mode of contraception would be? Free Hillary masks. Would kill every erection within a ten mile radius. And maybe cause 'em to drop off altogether.

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We now return you to Whose Country Is It, Anyway?, still in progress....