Fiascoes in Three Takes

You can say that again! From the WSJ:

Just when President Bush seemed to have beaten back the Congressional defeatists on Iraq, along comes his own Justice Department to undermine some hard-won antiterror policy gains. The incompetence at Justice is getting to be expensive for Presidential power.

[…]

Some of the reaction on Capitol Hill has been typically overwrought, and the IG's audit found no evidence of intentional or criminal misuse. As a matter of law, such subpoenas are only allowed to seek certain kinds of records such as phone logs and travel information. This isn't a case of J. Edgar Hoover snooping on political enemies.

Nonetheless, the management lapses have done significant harm by allowing critics to claim that all such subpoenas should be barred. FBI Director Robert Mueller has acknowledged the foul-ups and says he's responsible, but it's astonishing that he didn't undertake his own audit much earlier. Those of us who have supported expanded government power to prevent another terror attack have done so with the expectation that the FBI and Justice will have processes in place that limit potential abuses. Mr. Mueller and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales both claimed that they did.

This is another fiasco for the FBI, which may simply be incapable of effective counterterrorism. Every independent group that has looked into the FBI--including the Robb-Silberman commission--has found that the agency is failing in that duty. Whatever discipline is handed out for this latest foul-up, the country needs to debate again whether domestic antiterror functions should be taken from the FBI and given to a new agency modeled after Britain's MI5.

MI5. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard a call for a new federal agency modeled on MI5; in fact, I’ve made the same sort of calls in the past. The idea is a good one except for one thing: time. It takes time to stand up a new bureaucracy, it takes time to pick and choose the personnel who will staff it, and it takes time to integrate that agency into the existing, over-large and largely inept federal intelligence community. And that’s probably the reason there’s been little or no movement on the idea. We simply do not have the luxury of time…the threat is too great and the proposed task is much too large.

Still and even, something must be done. The FBI seems immune to change, or, if not immune, incredibly resistant. Their information systems are 1970s vintage and their procedures, from all indications, are pretty much from that era, as well. I don’t believe decapitating DoJ by firing Gonzales (who does seem to deserve it) and Mueller is the answer. And I’m waaay out of my depth and area of expertise to suggest an alternate course. But I will say one thing: watching both Mssrs Gonzales and Mueller thrash about while trying to restore confidence in DoJ is painful. And that’s understating the case.

Captain Ed, as usual, has more.

Hell freezes over, SoCal edition:

AFTER WEEKS OF internal strife, House Democrats have brought forth their proposal for forcing President Bush to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by 2008. The plan is an unruly mess: bad public policy, bad precedent and bad politics. If the legislation passes, Bush says he'll veto it, as well he should.

It was one thing for the House to pass a nonbinding vote of disapproval. It's quite another for it to set out a detailed timetable with specific benchmarks and conditions for the continuation of the conflict. Imagine if Dwight Eisenhower had been forced to adhere to a congressional war plan in scheduling the Normandy landings or if, in 1863, President Lincoln had been forced by Congress to conclude the Civil War the following year. This is the worst kind of congressional meddling in military strategy.

[…]

By interfering with the discretion of the commander in chief and military leaders in order to fulfill domestic political needs, Congress undermines whatever prospects remain of a successful outcome. It's absurd for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to try to micromanage the conflict, and the evolution of Iraqi society, with arbitrary timetables and benchmarks.

Well, OK, they’re only stating the obvious. Still, that’s a big leap for The LA Times, nu? And you know they aren’t…uh…exactly overwhelmed with their new-found common sense. Nope. They absolutely, positively, have to get their licks in on Dubya. Which they do (“Bush's wartime leadership does not inspire much confidence. But...”). And of course, there’s that inference that the Dems need to “just do it,” as in: cut off funding for the war. Or rescind the authorization to use force in Iraq. They are the LA Times, after all.

At any rate, here’s hoping Madame Speaker reads and heeds the primary thrust of the op-ed: “Quit meddling!” Faint hope, that.

Related (sorta) stuff at Don Surber’s place: “Lefties Eat Their Own.” Excerpts:

A bunch of lefty protesters gathered Sunday outside the home of a government official to demand that the U.S. cut off funding for the war in Iraq, the AP reported. The official’s name: Nancy Pelosi.

[…]

But we are dealing with people who are never satisfied with anything. They are a small group of people; AP reported there are twice as many conservatives as there are liberals (via James Joyner). They prefer looking from the outside in. Now that they are inside, they turn on their own.

This is political suicide. Jonestown really is applicable. That cult began in California and was praised by Jane Fonda. Noted the AP of this new group, “Organizers count more than 140 arrests so far nationwide. Most involve charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct.”

Hmmm. On the one hand we have the LAT. On the other: moonbats.

Your move, Madame Speaker.

I don’t normally read Malkin (for the same reason I don’t read Coulter: too much bomb-throwing). But this is rich:

First, Democrat Rep. David Obey spanks "idiot liberals." Now, Democrat presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is calling out the cowards who won't debate on Fox News. Punchy!

I did the Obey thing in a previous post. But Kucinich? Speaking up for Fox News (sorta, if you kinda squint)? Who’d a thunk it?

Once again, I’ll quote Mr. Morrisey, this time on Democrats, Fox News and Kucinich:

Or, as I said earlier, how can we trust these men and women to defend the United States and stand up to Iran, North Korea, and Osama bin Laden when they run screeching from Roger Ailes and Fox's viewers?

Memo to Democrats: When Dennis Kucinich has to scold you for lacking courage, you need a serious search-and-rescue for your party's stones.

What he said!!

And now I have to go see a man about a horse fast internet connection. I’m going to pay my ISP bill in person this month rather than mail it in, because I want to know what’s up with this fiber connection I was supposed to get sometime in January. Now that it’s mid-March. Enquiring minds wanna know, as it’s said…