Having studiously neglected their oversight role during the two years since the White House trashed Valerie Plame’s cover, Republicans in both Houses of Congress have now decided to hold hearings. Predictably, they’re about everything but the main point: that the President is surrounded by a bunch of arrogant, incompetent, unpatriotic thugs with no sense of limits.
The House committee is going to think about whether we need an Official Secrets Act, though that phrase isn’t being used. We don’t. As several of Mr. Bush’s closest advisers are about to learn, we have adequate legislation already in place to punish activity that’s worth punishing.
The Senate committee, under White House shill Pat Roberts, is going to investigate “the CIA’s use of cover,” as if it were the CIA that had done something wrong here, and while they’re at it try to smear some slime on Patrick Fitzgerald, who is obviously getting too close to the guilty for GOP comfort.
Actually, the news, on balance, makes me happy. The hearings will help keep the story alive until the indictments are ready, and give the Democrats lots of opportunities to ask nasty questions. And the more the Republicans in Congress defend the indefensible, the worse things will be for them in 2006 and 2008.