Roberts' position is intriguing, said Rutgers' Baker, who has advised several Democratic senators and one Republican over three decades.bwahahahaha
"Evidently Sen. Roberts has been persuaded there is something there that makes him need to defend the administration," he said.
But the aggressive defense of Bush may also compromise Roberts' committee leadership, Baker said.
"Three or four years ago, if you asked Democrats to list the 10 Republicans easiest to work with, Pat Roberts would have made the list," but no more, Baker said.
High-profile intelligence controversies, starting with Sept. 11, have turned the Senate's historically bipartisan intelligence committee into one of the most bitterly partisan in Congress, with negative consequences on national security debates, Baker said.
Roberts said he can't help it if Democrats have played politics with national security.
"Don't talk to me about partisan charges on the committee after what I've been through," he said, referring to a leaked memo showing Democrats' plan to use Roberts to advance their own political ends, as well as other partisan controversies that have roiled since Roberts took over Intelligence in 2003.
"I'm a very patient person," he said. "I'm not known as a partisan."
But circumstances might make that reputation unavoidable, Baker said. And for the public, it may be impossible to tell where security ends and politics begins.
"My problem or frustration is that I can't set the record straight," Roberts said.
You can re-read Larisa's take on Pat Roberts here - note that this is the first in her series about the OSP and WHIG and Feith and Plame and Ledeen etc. etc
5 comments:
Congress is similar to Pat Roberts in that most members of Congress haven't done much in the way of opposing Bush policies. Have we seen ONE person hold a press conference and say, "This crap is beyond shameful. Those evil MF'ers are a 5th column. I can't work "inside the system" because the system is broken...ie...there is no system...just a bunch of traitors backed by the Military Industrial Complex and all the PR money can buy. And for the record, I'm NOT depressed. I go jogging to get exercise, not to commit suicide."
Roberts is just more sleazy than most. Why would he protect Bush at the expense of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians? I don't know. I haven't figured out how the PNAC crowd got Congress on board.
I still contend the motive is more than greed. I lean towards the theory that a 5th column has taken over the government and wants to turn the US into a full blown fascist state.
i re-read larisa's interview with ritter today - he has an answer for congress
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/21631/
i take your point it looks like there is more than greed - but what? it's gotta be greed and/or power - what else is there?
Great interview w/Ritter.
No doubt greed plays a huge role in this...ie...corporate greed and some individuals taking advantage of their political power to get a few million for themselves. IMO, the desire for control over people/nations is the driving motive for these policies.
Noise, I agree with you that something is desperately wrong with the Bush admin that goes way beyond ineptitude or greed. There's no smoking guns on this, no signed confessions, but all of these guys went to their civics classes and know what the US Constitution is all about.
And it's not like Bush is operating in a vacuum. Poppy Bush and James Baker have always been there to guide him if he needed to just to make the thievery a little less brazen.
I look at stolen elections, Iraqi invasions planned since before 2000, the false bin Laden confession video, the anthrax attacks and the opening up of new detention centres.
It has all the signs of a fascist state in the wings.
Perhaps they plan a nuclear attack on the US as a trigger for all this, but are struggling to find a way to make it credible?
"It has all the signs of a fascist state in the wings."
that much i agree with - although i'm not sure WHY they want a fascist state... my guess is that there are personal/selfish motives behind the fascism
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