Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

The Democrats in the Senate are trying to get an independent investigation of the pre Iraq war "intelligence" going. Sounds like that should be a no brainer, we should appoint an independent council and check it out, regardless of what "side" you are on its a pretty important subject, lets just agree to check into it? Not so fast. The Republicans seem to assert its not even a fair thing to inquire about? Asking for an *independent* investigation into the matter in the wake of admissions of federal officials whom have resigned, generals who have cried foul, intelligence officials flat out stating manipulation is taking place, large amounts of "intelligence" that has turned out to have been "flawed" in favor of certain political agendas and indictments of top White House officials over matters related is not a fair question? Wow.

So it seems after all the stalling and nonsense by the Senate (Republican controlled) a top Democratic leader has invoked Rule 21 to get some attention drawn to the matter in a body where he is the minority and hasnt gotten said attention otherwise.

It certainly got some attention, it got a response from the Senate Majority Leader - Bill Frist.

First said Frist said Democrats had "hijacked" the Senate with a "pure stunt." "In recent history, this just hasn't been done. And this lack of respect, the lack of civility is a real affront. This is an affront to me personally," he said. "This is an affront to our leadership. It is an affront to the United States of America, and it is wrong."

Whew, some tough talking there, four "affronts", count em even. Attention indeed.

So is Rule 21 so out of bounds that its an "affront to the United States of America" - how accurate exactly is Bill Frist?

Rule 21 has been invoked 53 times since 1929, according to the Congressional Research Service.

It was invoked six times during the impeachment trial of former President Bill Clinton for senators to organize the proceedings and deliberate on his eventual acquittal.

So to Mr Frist an "affront to the United States" is when the Democratic President gets a blowjob and there is an inquiry and the rule is invoked many times, and yet its WAAAY off limits to even ask about the Republican President starting a fake war using fake "intelligence" and lying about it, a "war" in which 2000 American Soldiers have been killed and now over 30,000 Iraqi civilians have also been killed.

There damn sure is an "affront to the United States" somewhere in there, hell I can count 3 or 4 of them too, the invocation of Rule 21 though is simply not among them.

All that affrontery aside, lets hope the Rule 21 "stunt" actually gets some real and independent attention on the "intelligence" matter, that is something that actually could be important for the future of our country, even though its not in the form of a flashing neon orange "terror" alert.

   Democrats force closed Senate session