Bush/Cheney Let Intelligence Reform Die, Pin it on Armed Services, Judiciary

Reformation of the nation's Intelligence apparatus, the key recommendation of the 9/11 comisssion, has been allowed to die in the House. Hastert shakes his head woefully, we tried and tried, he says.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, Chair of the Armed Services committee, says the bill takes battlefield intelligence out of Pentagon control. As we all know, 80% of the national ingelligence budget is under the Secretary of Defense. Hunter's protecting Rumsfeld's fieifdom.

Rep. Jim Sensebrenner, Chair of Judiciary, says the bill doesn't deal properly with illegal immigration -- which is about as directly relevant to intelligence reform as a good egg salad recipe -- the kind of thing which is put in to get horses, and is taken out in horse trading. Clearly, the administration isn't trading even for an egg-salad horse.

Bush's administration doesn't want intelligence reform, and they aren't pushing on the House to get it. They're happy to see it die, and let someone else take the blame.

Have a good egg-salad recipe? Post it here. We'll send the best one to Sensebrenner.