Republicans Anonymous

Interesting backdrop to today's pyrotechnics: it looks like the professionals are reasserting themselves:

The military's struggle with detainee abuses highlighted the clash between the JAGs and the civilian lawyers over the past two years; the military lawyers had strongly cautioned that approving extreme interrogation tactics could cause confusion in the field and could lead to abuses and public relations problems. Their concerns were shelved by civilian lawyers, who advocated the Bush administration's position that interrogators should have more flexibility in questioning suspected terrorists.

Memos the JAGs wrote explaining their concerns became public after prison abuses were reported last year, and Senate Armed Services Committee members expressed frustration that the military lawyers -- who accurately predicted the problems that would arise -- had been largely shoved aside.
(Source: Washington Post Pentagon Studies Raising Military Lawyers' Rank, Dec. 21, 2005 [emphasis added.])

And this:

Revolt of the Professionals

By David Ignatius

Wednesday, December 21, 2005; Page A31

The national security structure that the Bush administration created after Sept. 11, 2001, began to crumble this month because of a bipartisan revolt on Capitol Hill. Newly emboldened legislators forced the administration to accept new rules for the interrogation of prisoners, delayed renewal of the Patriot Act and demanded an investigation of warrantless wiretapping by the National Security Agency.

President Bush has bristled at these challenges to his authority over what has amounted to an undeclared national state of emergency. But the intelligence professionals who have daily responsibility for waging the war against terrorism don't seem particularly surprised or unhappy to see the emergency structure in trouble. They want clear rules and public support that will allow them to do their jobs effectively over the long haul, without getting second-guessed or jerked around by politicians. Basically, they don't want to be left holding the bag -- which this nation has too often done with its professional military and intelligence officers.

W and his Bush League minions may claim to be "grownups" - but so were Enron's Ken Lay and Adelphia's John Rigas. We need to replace the current Corrupt CEO President with real professionals...