Posted on 11/05/2003 5:59:28 PM PST by ayoshida
Nationally syndicated radio talk show host Sean Hannity has revealed the existence of a plot among the Democratic members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to use their power and their access to classified information to undermine the war effort and attack the President. This isn’t ‘just politics’, this isn’t an everyday thing. The purpose of the Intelligence Committee is to oversee America’s various intelligence services and to ensure that they are working for the defense of the American people. How can they achieve this aim if some members of the Committee are working in an effective alliance with the enemies of America? For an individual, or group of individuals, to use privileged information to attack the leadership of their country in wartime and, thereby, to give courage to the enemies of their country, is criminal. It is giving aid and comfort to the enemy, the explicit definition of treason set out in the Constitution of the United States of America.
The memo, written in typical bureaucratic-speak, is somewhat difficult to peruse. Let me perhaps provide a more detailed explanation. The memo explains that, “intelligence issues are clearly secondary to the public's concern regarding the insurgency in Iraq.” What this really means, translated, is that ‘Democratic victories are more important than American ones.’ This encapsulated the Democratic viewpoint- military and intelligence issues, the safety of America’s fighting men and women, always comes after politics.
Nor is this merely distasteful politicizing of a national security issue. It is possibly criminal. The memo, while it never makes any explicit reference to the leaking of classified information, refers to, “new disclosures,” and identifying, “solid leads.” ‘Disclosures’ of what? ‘Solid leads’ from where? If the material is heretofore undisclosed and yet to be uncovered, where is it going to come from?
The only conclusion which can be drawn is that these Democratic members are planning to skirt the lines of illegality and to abuse their access to classified information to wage partisan warfare. In essence, the author of the memo is suggesting that the Democratic Senators should use the information which they are privileged with by virtue of their membership on the Committee to attack the Administration. Because it would be illegal to do so directly- by simply saying what they know- they mean to do it indirectly, by stretching the limits of the system.
There will be those who will accuse those who are upset about this memo of overreacting, or attempting to create a scandal where there is none. In fact, nothing can be farther from the truth; this is simply another example of how the left has forgotten the difference between dissent and treason. It is yet another example of how Democrats have accepted the idea that hoping for the defeat of your own country in war is as legitimate (and perhaps a morally superior one at that) a political position as praying for victory.
In a republic there is a place for those who oppose the aims of an individual leader or who oppose an individual policy. There is a proud tradition of dissent in America, one which there remains no reason to question. The problem with ‘dissent’ is that it is too often used as a cloak for disloyalty.
There is no place in any country for those who would consort with the enemies of a nation, work to bring about a military defeat, or who otherwise seek to use their power to bring about the destruction of the country to whom they owe loyalty. They may do this because they have an ideological affinity with the enemy (as was the case during Vietnam, where leftists favored communists because they felt that they shared their ultimate aims. Or, they may do it because they are so desperate to acquire power for themselves that they are willing to condemn their fellow countrymen to danger and death for the sake of office. Disagreement is legitimate. Working to bring about the victory of the enemy is treasonous.
The Intelligence Committee is meant to be a part of the national security apparatus, not a political creature. It is meant to exercise a portion of the governing activities of Congress, not the political side of things. This is like Democrat members of the Armed Forces deliberately throwing battles in order to help elect a few more Democratic members of the House of Representatives. Of course, those soldiers who happen to be Democrats would never do such a thing, because they remain patriots. The same cannot be said for those Democratic Senators and staffers who would contemplate the use of classified information, thereby endangering the United States, as part of a purely political effort.
Whoever wrote or signed this memorandum is unfit to serve on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. More than that, they are unfit to serve in the United States Senate at all. While whoever did this ought to resign, that would require them to have a sense of honor. Therefore it might even be best that the decent, honest, and patriotic members of the Senate get out their copy of the Constitution and read Article One, Section Five, “Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a Member.”
The problem with ?dissent? is that it is too often used as a cloak for disloyalty.Indeed. De-cloak those disloyalists, I say. Administer to them the healing balm of human reason. It may look like a massive cudgel, but it has medincinal properties.
Exactly. They're fanatics.
Indeed. They have, in fact, call President Bush, himself, a terrorist.
Becki
FMCDH
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