Still Liveblogging the Hayden Hearings: The Love Song of Orrin Hatch
3: 10-- Hayden: "if I had no lawful authority to do something that needed to be done to protect this country, of course I would do it."
Russ: "Can you explain to me why we evenneedto pass laws in this Congress?" if the Pres is going to get all Article 2 on us. Well, Russ, uh, no. Have you been paying attention? TIME OF WAR.
We aren't liveblogging that much because Feingold actually asked interesting questions. Hayden didn't answer them, but they were interesting questions. And now we're on to Chambliss, so BRING ON THE CRAZY!
3: 00-- Yes! Russ "See Ya!" Feingold! The program is illegal, the President mislead the country! And WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US? "What kind of CIA director will he be? Will General Hayden follow the law?" You could ask him, Russ, he's sitting right there.
Hayden -- You have to look at the context in which I lied. "I knew in my own heart and mind that we were not talking about domestic-to-domestic." But his voice failed to make that distinction. "I think that was the speech where I talked about Osama bin Laden traveling from Niagra Falls to New York." OSAMA BIN LADEN HAS DEVELOPED BARREL TECHNOLOGY. Why would Hayden want to remind anyone of that speech? It's the stupidest hypothetical ever. Seriously. And we already heard the "WILL YOU CALL RUMMY BACK" bit earlier.
2: 40-- Don't crowd the ball! Focus on the scoreboard! No "I" in team! A lot of it is attitudinal! Should the head of the CIA be a complete idiot? Does that make their lack of oversight more or less dangerous? We usedta think "less," but complete idiots have demonstrated an alarming ability to fuck things up a lot these last couple years.
"For every 10 analysts with fewer than four years service, we only have one experiences analysts with between 10 and 14 years service." No one in the CIA knows what the the hell they're doing.
We are cheering ourselves up by watching this.
2: 32--
"People read the political polls sometimes with only the politics in mind" -- Senator Chuck Hagel.
Arrrrgggghhhhhh.
2: 17-- John Warner wishes Hayden and his family well. Also: Nice uniform! Warner bitching about stuff he heard on the radio. "There wahz a gent on there sayin' the morale at the CIA is aht rock bottom." Does Hayden find the moral at rock bottom? Hayden actually kinda does. Awk-ward! Still, though, there are TOP SECRET GREAT SUCCESSES and it's really too bad, just a damn shame, really, that the American people can't learn about them.
Christ, Warner's boring. We'll pick this back up when someone interesting comes on.
1: 54-- "The media made it sound like you were intercepting phone calls, but the fact of the matter is, you-- the fact of the matter is, well, maybe I can't answer that question." Right, Senator Hatch,he'ssupposed to be answering questions. You are supposed to beaskingthem.
Hatch is trying to make Hayden sound way, way, way more hawkish and aggressive than Hayden actually wants to sound. Hatch: So, you can do ANYTHING YOU WANT to PROTECT AMERICANS and FUCK CONGRESS, right?
Hayden: Uh, we are following the law and briefing...
Hatch: FUCK THAT. YOU DON'T OWE CONGRESS SHIT.
1: 45-- Aaaanndd we're back to this shit.
ORRIN HATCH WITH THE STUPIDEST HYPOTHETICAL QUESTION EVAH!
BREAKING: MICHAEL HAYDEN WILL RETURN JOHN NEGROPONTE'S CALL BEFORE DONALD RUMSFELD'S. BUT HELL, NO ONE RETURNS RUMSFELD'S CALLS ANYMORE. HE CAN'T GET ARRESTED IN THIS TOWN.
Hatch takes the "very slowly and in great detail list every person who was briefed" method of making Hayden sound very, very, very good at briefing people. We are waiting for him to break into song . Not gonna happen.
This list is going on and on and on. WE ARE STILL ON MARCH OF 2005. AAARRRGGGHHH.