Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said Bush's handpicked appointments "to investigate his own administration . . . creates the appearance of a cozy inside job." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called it "a commission wholly owned by the executive branch investigating the executive branch." [Wash. Post]
I can't believe this. Not that Bush handpicked the panel to investigate the weapons of mass destruction. It's that Tom Harkin and Nancy Pelosi are completely missing the point. As Josh Marshall points out, the panel can't investigate the White House.
No, really. Read the order yourself. The panel members have been mandated to investigate the CIA and the intelligence gathering process, nothing else. The executive branch--and its possible misuse of the intelligence--isn't mentioned, even implicitly. I don't even know why President Bush bothered to handpick the panel members and have the deadline for the report to be well beyond the election (March 31, 2005). He could have appointed nine feces-throwing monkeys to the panel and still get off clean.
Why isn't this news? It's like a criminal peeing on the floor and slapping "Ol Susana" on his ass to distract you from the body in his car. Am I completely misreading this? I feel like I'm living in a loony house right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment