Pete? Our Pete? Writing stern letters to Bush? Get out!
Wonder how much media time this revelation buys him.
WASHINGTON, July 8 — In a sharply worded letter to President Bush in May, an important Congressional ally charged that the administration might have violated the law by failing to inform Congress of some secret intelligence programs and risked losing Republican support on national security matters.
The letter from Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, did not specify the intelligence activities that he believed had been hidden from Congress.
But Mr. Hoekstra, who was briefed on and supported the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program and the Treasury Department's tracking of international banking transactions, clearly was referring to programs that have not been publicly revealed.
Recently, after the harsh criticism from Mr. Hoekstra, intelligence officials have appeared at two closed committee briefings to answer questions from the chairman and other members. The briefings appear to have eased but not erased the concerns of Mr. Hoekstra and other lawmakers about whether the administration is sharing information on all of its intelligence operations.
I'm sure that whatever they are doing is okey-dokey fine with Pete- and I have a hard time believing that this is nothing more than a publicity stunt designed to paint the Republicans as independent of Bush.
Too late Pete- but I'm sure we will be seeing you soon on the talking head circuit to discuss it some more.
Kos has a fun smackdown of Hoekstra here.