The problem is not that we spied on them, or they spied on us, we ruled out that objection with our everyone does it defense of the NSA listening in on everyones phone calls. The problem is that Israel told Congress what the Administration didn't want them to know.
Does anyone think about these things before they speak? I only ask because one of our arguments during the Bush years was that Congress wasn't doing oversight. We argued that Bush was keeping secrets from Congress, and Congress wasn't doing their job because Bush was a Republican.
Now we're mad that Congress knows what the Administration is doing. Or is it that Congress found out from Israel instead of from our people? I'm a little confused here, I readily admit it. Because I don't see how we can change tacts in nine years so dramatically.
Whoever decided to go to the Press with this complaint is an idiot of epic proportions. The window licking crayon eating moron who thought this would gin up outrage in the American People over Israel and Congress should be sent back to his previous job of asking if the customer wanted fries with that. Seriously, the gist of the outrage is that Israel told Congress. We can't get outraged that Israel found out what is going on because the entire defense during Snowden was everyone does it. Yeah, we did bad things, but everyone does it. That opens us up to being powerless to object to anyone spying on us. We used to send Diplomatic staff home when someone got caught spying on us, so now we're screwed on that too because everyone does it man.
Worse, how we found out is we were spying on the Israeli. So we found out they were spying on us, by spying on them. So no outrage there. All we're left with is the weak assed "They told Congress" complaint. That means our parties position is that the Administration isn't supposed to tell Congress anything. Now, worst case scenario, a Republican is elected to the White House in 2016. Then we can't even complain that the Administration is keeping Congress in the dark because our position is that it's a good thing to keep Congress in the dark until we are damned well good and ready to tell Congress what we want want them to know.
Does anyone else see the astonishing levels of arrogance that is going to be seen by the American People by this? That's the image we're reduced to. Congress doesn't have a right to know despite that whole Congressional Oversight thing we were pissed off about ten years ago. In fact, Congress has a duty not to know anything that we don't want them to know. The outrage is how dare Israel tell Congress anything. How do we spin that later when the Republicans are in charge and are keeping secrets? I don't think the public is going to buy the whole we're good people who keep secrets for the right reasons while they are bad people who keep secrets for the wrong reason argument.
It's hard to argue that you are more moral, more honorable than the other guys when you make these kinds of arguments gang. That's why the window licker needs to get fired. If this story gets traction, and it just might, then you can see people asking the candidates for the Oval Office if they believe it is a Presidential Duty to inform Congress and allow proper oversight in accordance with the Constitution, and a few pesky laws.
The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (P.L. 79-601), for the first time, explicitly called for “legislative oversight” in public law. It directed House and Senate standing committees “to exercise continuous watchfulness” over programs and agencies under their jurisdiction; authorized professional staff for them; and enhanced the powers of the Comptroller General, the head of Congress’s investigative and audit arm, the General Accounting Office (GAO).
The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 (P.L. 91-510) authorized each standing committee to “review and study, on a continuing basis, the application, administration and execution” of laws under its jurisdiction; increased the professional staff of committees; expanded the assistance provided by the Congressional Research Service; and strengthened the program evaluation responsibilities of GAO.
The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (P.L. 93-344) allowed committees to conduct program evaluation themselves or contract out for it; strengthened GAO’s role in acquiring fiscal, budgetary, and program-related information; and upgraded GAO’s review capabilities.
So President's Truman, Nixon, and Ford all signed laws regarding oversight of the Executive by Congress. And now we're out in the media furious that Congress knows something that the Administration didn't want them to. Doesn't anyone see that this is going to play out badly for our side? Talk about lack of transparency, this is fury that the obfuscation failed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_oversight
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