Molly Ivins: White House to 'gut' CIA

[Raster]

Purging for disloyalty makes us sick to our stomachs

AUSTIN, Texas -- Whilst the punditry wanders weak and weary in the deep fogs of the "moral values debate," what say we pay some attention to what is going on, eh?
According to Newsday, "The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Ladin..."

Bad Nooz. In the first place, the concept of "purge" has not hitherto played much part in our history, and now is no time to start. Considerable pains have been taken to protect the civil service from partisan pressure for extremely good reasons.

"Disloyalty to Bush," or any president, is not the same as disloyalty to the country. In fact, in the intelligence biz, opposing the White House is sometimes the highest form of loyalty to country, since when we fight without good intelligence, we fight blind.

<snip, more>

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=18092
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Molly is a jewell!

[JPace]

1. Who among us would not shudder at the thought of the CIA

wanting to "get" us? Yet with all their know how they could not
stop AWOL and his regime from becoming even stronger and more
menacing. Is there anyone, anywhere that can stop this administration from destroying our nation?

[TexasChick]

10. I don't know. Isn't Chimp'pa still head of the CIA and still gets

daily briefings? Maybe Bush, Sr. has something to do with it? :shrug:

[TomClash]

2. well, all I can say is there will be payback for this

[DELUSIONAL]

3. Molly's kicker is at the end!

and you can almost hear the Texas Twang --

We consistently see this administration trying to solve real policy problems by knocking out dissent, as though dissent itself were the problem. The Bushies always remind me of Cousin Claude, a major political thinker.

Claude says: "Hell, yiss, I believe in the right to dissent. H'it's in the Constitution! What I can't stand is all this criticism. Criticize, criticize, criticize. Why don't they leave poor Dubya alone and let him fight his war in peace?

"We're sendin' our best boys over there, and you know what them Eye-raqis do? They come out at night. Wearin' dirty robes. Not even Christian. If they don't like what we're doin' for 'em, whyn't they just go back where they come from?"

[Emillereid]

4. Won't purging the CIA simply make the spooks turn on Bush?

[winston61]

6. not thought process

What you are suggesting implies a thought process. That does not take place in the President's head. Thinkin' makes ma brain hurt, Dick, make it go away...

[pa28]

5. Clinton purges White House travel office.

Republican outcry. Bush purges CIA . . . no response.

[Dudley_DUright]

7. Thanks for posting

I tried to do so earlier, but DU has been very iffy lately as I am sure we are all painfully aware by now.

[Raster]

8. My pleasure. TGFM!

[Raster]

9. My pleasure. TGFM!

[indepat]

11. So it's not loyalty to our Constitution, our country, but to an invididual

Seems I've heard that song before.

[Catfight]

12. The last line from Cousin Claude is classic...the whole right wing is

one big cousin Claude thinking.

[Demeter]

13. This Is Why Bush Fails At Everything He Touches

The seeds of self-destruction have been planted--too bad the country is going to suffer for it, like the dead companies in his past, but the red voters won't be able to say they weren't ever warned.

Kassandra was chronically depressed, too.