Frist and Hastert demand a leak probe

November 8, 2005

The good news, congressional Republicans have finally concluded that a formal leak investigation on the Hill is necessary. The bad news is, it’s the wrong leak.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Tuesday called for a congressional leak investigation into who told the news media about previously undisclosed U.S. interrogation centers abroad.

“If accurate, such an egregious disclosure could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences, and will imperil our efforts to protect the American people and our homeland from terrorist attacks,” Frist and Hastert said in a letter. […]

“What is the actual and potential damage done to the national security of the United States and our partners in the global war on terror?” the letter asked. “We will consider other changes to this mandate based on your recommendations.”

These guys have officially become parodies of themselves. When the White House leaks classified information to at least six reporters then lies about it, First and Hastert can’t be bothered to even hold a hearing. But when Americans finally get a glimpse into the CIA’s secret gulags, all of a sudden, Republicans are worried about whether leaks might undermine our national security.

Frist and Hastert said the joint probe by the House and Senate intelligence committees should determine who leaked the information and under what authority.

Apparently, the standard has to do with public relations. If the leak smears a Democrat, Frist and Hastert approve. If the leak informs the public about abuse in a covert prison system in Soviet-era compounds in Eastern Europe, Frist and Hastert mind.

Honestly, to have a novelist’s pen…

These guy’s are just revolting. God.

  • I’ll lay you 8 to 5 that this is Frist’s idea of some kind of hackneyed revenge for Reid’s shutting down the Senate the other day. Frist was mortally embarassed by that so now he’s returning the favor by embarassing….himself!

    The only surprise is that Hastert signed on to it. He’s such a non-entity, nobody cares what he says anyway. I guess he was the only one Frist could find who could hold a pen. Sad.

  • Here’s how it went down….

    “Denny, Bill? Are you on the line? Good. This is Dick speaking… I wanted you guys to put something together for me… Might help us all out.”

    A nice little diversionary tactic, yes? So I guess we are now going to investigate someone for revealing something that the U.S. doesn’t do???

  • Carpetbagger – You have a typo in the headline. You misspelled Frist’s name.

  • There were trolls using this notion (that revealing the existence of a U.S.-sanctioned torture network is a heinous breach of security) over at Drum’s place yesterday. I guess they really are centrally directed and coordinated, and some are sent to lefty comment boards. Amazing.

  • At least this non-sense will stay in the news. Without Moe & Curly leading an investigation, this might have been forgotten by noon.

  • With this Gang that Can’t Shoot Strait, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they found a Repub behind the leak…

  • Hope Scott is right and the MSM stays on top of this. Dems won’t have to waste any time screaming about this latest perversion of American values; they’ve done it for us. (Kind of like the idiot juvenile delinquents who videotape their own crime sprees.) I’d like to think people will be more dismayed by the secret, sanctioned torture network than the fact that someone let the public in on it.

    Thanks, Bill. Thanks, Denny.

  • Breaking on Raw Story, Trent Lott told CNN that a GOP senator may have leaked the information. If so, that would put a damper on Frist and Hastert’s move for an investigation.

  • they really are ‘The Gang That Could Not Shoot Straight’ (with ‘straight’ being a homonym–cue Dr. Evil–referring to both direction of their aim and their penchant for buggery, er, I mean lying)

  • “If accurate, such an egregious disclosure could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences, and will imperil our efforts to protect the American people and our homeland from terrorist attacks.”

    So how much of this will Frist still believe is true if it does turn out that it was a GOP senator who did the deed?

    Just how retarded can that fool be? I can’t wait to see his next brilliant strategem.

  • They say life immitates comedy, but it seems comedy has some catching up to do.

    It’s pretty clear the Frist/Hastert announcement was a stunt to deflect attention from the Plame leak. This was already pretty funny for it’s naked transparancy, but then Trent Lott joined the party without consulting his talking points. Not only did Lott say that the leak likely came from a repub Senator, he points to Big Time.

    Said Lott, “You know, that information came from a strategy session we Republicans had with the vice president…”

    In trying to protect the creepy veep from his involvement in the Plame affair, they put him right in the middle of a 2nd leak of classified material.

    This terrible leak of national security material – that had Frist’s and Hastert’s panties in bunches – began with the Veep at a repub political strategy session. That’s not a very judicious use of national security information, if you ask me.
    Just as with the last leak, it appears Creepy Veep Big Time is again at the center.

    Though I expect Frist and Hastert to develop instant amnesia about this investigation, it’s not over. The CIA has requested an investigation from the Justice Dept and Trent Lott has publicly put Cheney at square one. It’s not a good day to be Big Time.

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