Reyes’ error was bad, but he wasn’t the only one

December 12, 2006

Following up on a post from Saturday, Congressional Quarterly national security editor Jeff Stein asked Rep. [tag]Silvestre Reyes[/tag] (D-Texas), soon to be the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, a series of questions about the religio-political dynamics of the Middle East, most of which Reyes answered well. Then, he stumbled.

[tag]Al Qaeda[/tag] is what, I asked, Sunni or Shia?

‘”Al Qaeda, they have both,” Reyes said. “You’re talking about predominately?”

“Sure,” I said, not knowing what else to say.

“Predominantly — probably Shiite,” he ventured.

Reyes was obviously wrong, and given his new leadership role, that’s discouraging. It’s a question he should have had no trouble answering correctly.

The result, not surprisingly, is a ton of media attention — domestic and foreign — all of which is making Reyes appear pretty foolish.

I’m not going to defend Reyes’ mistake; it was dumb and disappointing. I am, however, beginning to wonder why his blunder is so much worse than Intelligence Committee Republicans, who failed Stein’s pop quiz just as miserably .

In October, Stein raised the same issues with Rep. Terry Everett, a seven-term Alabama Republican who was, at the time, vice chairman of the House intelligence subcommittee on technical and tactical intelligence. He had no idea about the differences between a Sunni and a Shiite, and after hearing an explanation of the distinction, said, “Now that you’ve explained it to me, what occurs to me is that it makes what we’re doing over there extremely difficult, not only in Iraq but that whole area.”

Similarly, Stein asked Representative Jo Ann Davis, a Virginia Republican who then headed a House intelligence subcommittee charged with overseeing the CIA’s performance in recruiting Islamic spies and analyzing information. She acknowledged that she “should” know about these differences, but really didn’t.

How’d the media respond? Using Nexis, I found one U.S. newspaper that mentioned Everett and Davis failing Stein’s pop quiz (the far-right Washington Times), and one international paper (The Australian). That’s it. No wire story, no TV.

Reyes, meanwhile, actually did slightly better on the questions. Stein noted that Reyes, unlike the House Republicans he talked to a couple of months ago, “knows that the 1,400- year-old split in Islam between Sunnis and Shiites not only fuels the militias and death squads in Iraq, it drives the competition for supremacy across the Middle East between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia.” The GOP lawmakers didn’t even know this much.

Reyes clearly deserves some ridicule here, but why is that when Intelligence Committee Republicans are clueless, it’s a minor blip on the radar, but when an Intelligence Committee Democrat makes the same mistake, it’s a major media phenomenon?

Or, put another way, what liberal media?

Lesson for Reyes, never guess to the press.
Have a ready prep sheet with the fundamental info on it.

  • One reason it is news is that the Dems are supposed to be smart, while they just expect Reps to be ignorant. The bigotry of high expectations.

  • Well, I think this one is square on our shoulders. We are always acting like the party of real policy Then Reyes, one of the first appointments, fails miserable at the first test of his knowledge which is an indicator of his policy making abilities.

    If we are going to act like we are intellectually superior, we had better be, or at least be prepared to take the heat when one of our own looks like an imbecile.

  • This is unbelievable. Osama Bin Laden is from Saudi Arabia, as almost everyone should know. Saudis are Sunni. Therefore Al Queda must also be Sunni – at least, predominantly, if not totally.

    Anyone who follows news – even MSM news – should be able to follow that. A congressman, so clueless that he takes an obvious guess, and misses a 50 – 50 chance? Idiot.

  • Look, I cannot say I can keep all of the sects straight, so I will not crucify Reyes for the same failure. At least he was aware of the splits and what the implications are—more than his Republican counterparts…

    But all of them should know better. If you are serving on a Committee like that, you aren’t just responsible for what’s going on back in the district, you have an obligation to be knowledgable about WTF is going on in the world.

    All of them should be ashamed and embarrassed.

    As for the difference between the Reyes gaffe and the others, Reyes had the misfortune of making his in a post-election, post-power struggle/appointment spotlight, plus he was chosen over two other more experienced candidates, while the Republicans were more or less unknown trees falling in an empty forest. Reyes should have studied up. No excuses.

    I expect better from my party. By all rights he should be bypassed for the Chairmanship for Holt if not tossed outright from the Committee. That’s ludicrous, of course, but it’s how I feel.

  • Well, I suppose if you get the leadership position you’d hoped for, you should be ready.

    Let this be a lesson to all the backbenchers, use the extra time in Washington this session to actually study up for your jobs.

  • It’s not necessarily the ignorance you possess at any given moment that matters, but your willingness to recognize the ignorance when epiphanies occur, and then taking action to rectify any problems that may have arisen out of such ignorance. That is the dynamic as I have been able to discern it.

    Got you moments in journalism or any other noble profession do not serve us well unless we wish to continue the hurray for our side mentality that has served up so much misery in the world. Deep understanding of otherness takes time and energy. Two things our culture is a bit deficient of at this moment in our history. -Kevo

  • When the Reyes flap first came out, I wondered what kind of security briefings committees are getting if, during the course of those briefings, members are not picking up on basic facts. I still do. Who’s doing these briefings, and doesn’t the confused look (or glazed stares) on committee members faces set off an alarm?

    But as bad as media coverage of Reyes vs similar republican stupidity has been, it doesn’t compare to a bit CNN carried today about Obama’s name — not so much his middle name of Hussein, but how people confuse Obama with Osama. They ran a number of Leno-like street interviews, asking if Barak Obama was a threat to the country. Selecting the dregs of the gene pool for respondents, the majority said yes.

    Ignorance is rampant, and thanks to media, increasing.

  • CB, it is very different from the R’s failing the quiz because those are the rules we in the progressive community wrote. We have relentlessly slammed on the cultorue of croneyistic incompetence where people were given huge responsibility despite a lack of the skills to use it properly. It is beyond disappointing that this is all the better the “new boss” can do compared to the “old boss.” While I’m no Jane Harman fan due to her general center-right position, I bet she would have done better on this quiz than Reyes. And, it isn’t like Reyes is some good progressive: he was one of only 40 Dems to vote for the Rethuglican “fetal pain” bill last week. I don’t mean to be a big bucket of cold water, but we really are not off to a very good start.

  • Pelosi blew a great opportunity when she passed over Holt for that position. While I’m relieved she passed over Hastings, which should certainly have been a no-brainer, I’m not at all impressed with her judgement on Reyes.

  • I agree with Zeitgeist. Democrats have made much hay, and rightly so, about the incompetence of the Republicans. For Reyes to be so frightfully ignorant of basic facts of the most important issue of our time is unforgivable. No wonder people have such a low opinion of Congress.

    “Waa waa, those others did the same, or worse, and they’re not as in trouble as Reyes, it’s not FAIR, boohoohoo,” as the partisan blogger stomps off. PUHleez.

    I’m a radical from way back. And this is precisely why I can’t stand partisans. Can’t you simply call a spade a spade? Speaker Pelosi and Rep. Reyes both have some ‘splainin’ to do. You should be calling them on it, not distracting from it.

    The man chosen by Speaker Pelosi to lead the Intelligence Committee showed himself to be unfit for the position, much in the same way that Bush did when he revealed he had no clue about Shia and Sunni Muslims. Pelosi can’t exactly fire Reyes, now can she? We’re stuck with the guy.

    What the hell did they talk about in the selection process? Did any of their criteria have anything to do with demonstrating the qualities of a leader? Did Reyes get the chair only because he wasn’t Hastings or Harman? These are the things I want to know.

    I haven’t been reading this blog long. Should I continue? As Tracy Chapman sang, “Gimmee one reason to stay here . . . .”

  • There’s a huge difference between a member of the Intelligence Committee being ignorant, and the CHAIRMAN of the committee being ignorant — especially when there was so much debate about picking a chairman. What would you have preferred the not-liberal media do? Make apologies for Reyes?

    Besides, your link about “media attention” shows only a handful of mainstream newspapers littered among blogs, foreign newspapers and other sources. So it’s not like this was a huge front-page story. Don’t fall into the Republican trap of whining that you’re constantly mistreated by a media conspiracy. It’s just as tiresome from the left as it is from the right.

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