David Addington, not yet killed by al Qaeda (much to Rep. Delahunt's dismay), PWNs Debbie Wasserman-Schulz
By Jeff Emanuel Posted in Bill Delahunt | Congress | David Addington | Debbie Wasserman Schultz | hearings | PWN3D — Comments (10) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Not allowed to return to his usual daily affairs after essentially being wished a slow death at the hands of al Qaeda by Democrat Congressman and Obama superdelegate Bill Delahunt (MA-10), David Addington, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, had to grit his teeth and face a barrage of mindlessness from Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20), as well, in Guantanamo Bay/detainee treatment hearings on Capitol Hill Thursday.
From the C-SPAN transcript (both transcript and video are available here):
Wasserman Schultz: Did you discuss specific types of interrogation methods that interrogators should use while at Guantanamo Bay on the detainees?Addington: I don't recall doing that, no.
WS: That means you didn't, or you don't recall doing it?
A: I don't recall doing it, as I said
WS: Well, it's hard to fathom that you would not have a recollection on specific conversations about typeds of interrogation methods as opposed to just generally talking about interrogation.
A: Is there a question pending, ma'am?
WS: The question is I don't believe that you don't recall whether you discussed specific interrogation methods. So I will as you again. Did you discuss specific interrogation methods on any of your trips to Guantanamo Bay with people who would be administering the interrogation.
Read on.
A: As I said to you, I don't recall. Let me be clear to you that there are two different things that may be helpful to you in asking your questions. The Department of Defense interrogation--WS: (interrupting) I really don't need assistance in asking my questions.
A: --the CIA program, and you will find when you question me, the participation with respect to the CIA program is more extensive than the DOD program. You wouldn't find it so unusual that I don't recall the particular details--
WS: (interrupting) Except that--there is an accusation that interrogation methods went far beyond and up to and past torture following your visits to Guantanamo Bay. So I'm trying to get a sense of whether you actually went there and, encourage those specific interrogation methods, and whether they crossed the line.
A: Yes. And I did not.
WS: I'm pretty clear on why I'm asking you the question and which one I'm asking you.
Emphasis added. I encourage you to cue up the video to 1:23:45 and watch the exchange for yourself; it lasts about a minute and a half, and is worth the time to see the stuttering and stammering Wasserman Schultz is doing in the face of Addington's apparently mystifying refusal to break down on camera and confess to being the mastermind behind every bit of terrorism in world history.
Heck, it's worth watching just to see the wonderfully multicultural liberal Congresswoman struggle repeatedly to pronounce the word "Guantanamo," and to read her questions -- written on a piece of paper for her -- with anything resembling coherence or passable sentence structure.
The L.A. Times' "Countdown to Crawford: The Last Days of the Bush Administration" blog is reporting that Congressional Democrats are "stunned by [the] Bush officials' disdain" and "still reeling over the lip they got."
"Of all the hearings I've attended since I started serving on the Judiciary Committee four years ago, I have never felt more strongly that a witness was lying," Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said in an interview. "At the end of the day I'm not sure how much we can do -- we can't prove what he says he doesn't recollect."
[...]
The Judiciary Committee is looking into whether former Justice Department official John Yoo's claim of executive privilege will fly. In the meantime, key clips of Addington's snarky responses to members of Congress are making the highlight reels.
Clearly Wasserman Schultz did a better job reading her script to the media in that interview than she did when trying to grill David Addington on Thursday. Had she -- or the L.A. Times writers -- been facing such a vapid, incoherent "grilling" as Addington was in that hearing room, and from such a clearly inferior intellect as Wasserman Schultz presented to Addington, they likely would have had trouble keeping the snark factor down themselves.
However, the key to this reaction lies in this phrase from the Times' blog:
Vice President Dick Cheney chief of staff David Addington was so disdainful that some are wondering if he can be prosecuted for lying to Congress.
Sadly for Democrats, being shown up by a superior intellect and more coherent speaker does not constitute perjury.
Democrats (and their media allies) would do well to recall exactly what perjury really looks like, and to refrain from making themselves look any sillier than Ms. Wasserman Schultz already did, or any more hateful and murderous than Mr. Delahunt has.
Besides, as Wasserman Schultz pointed out in her most coherent statement of the day, Congress "can't prove what [Addington] says he doesn't recollect." And it's not like some Rose Law Firm billing records are going to suddenly appear outside his office, or a stained dress will suddenly find its way into the empty evidence locker.
Sometimes witch-hunters have to finally come to their senses and realize that there might not have been any witchcraft going on in the first place, nor any witches around to conduct it.
But hey, at least Addington didn't claim to have missed all the racketeering and conspiring because he had to step away to use the restroom due to too much iced tea, right?
...that one of the questioners (who also beclowned himself) was Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Nation of Islam)?
"PsychObama, qu'est-ce que c'est?"
at all, Vlad. And I wonder if the good Rep. Wasserman Schulz understands yet, what "I don't recall" means? That's a clearer answer than "it depends on what the definition of is, is".
Represents my district. I know some of her relatives, the scary thing is on the basis of good manners they married up.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
...that they don't know what to do when the facts interfere with that reality.
It's almost a mental illness. She is certain that he is lying, even though she has no proof, just like Democrats are certain that we are loosing in Iraq and certain that their social programs are working and certain that "Big Oil" is intentionally jacking up gas prices.
When they talk with their aides, chat fellow Dems and peruse the Daily Kos everything makes so much sense, everything is so clear. They are right, right, right! But once in a while they are called upon to test out their beliefs in a public forum, where they aren't surrounded by brown-nosers and fellow-travelers, and real reality rears its ugly head. And then they are at a loss what to do...or to say. The voices in their heads don't match what they are seeing with their eyes, and they wind up looking so darn dumb.
I love those moments.
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Those who control energy, control society.
At least we're back to perjury being considered a crime again.
Fortuna Favet Fortibus
But first someone should give the dems a clue as to what perjury means. Disdainful testimony = lying to Congress, that's a new one. I guess they could try Contempt of Congress, but good luck with that too.
the 12% that actually approve of the job congress is doing, but then again, I do wonder about which universe those people live in.
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4.62, 0.51
That hearing ran three hours.
Aside from the fact she doesn't know the difference
Between asking a question and making a statement. Or more likely thinks her constituents don't.
As to her never having been treated in this manner, it would of her a world of good if it happened more often. God only knows this administration hasn't rapped congress in the chops often enough.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777