Hayden hearings:

The Senate hearings for GW's CIA nomiee Gen. Michael Hayden began today, with the usual antics from the pols. Most GOPers were heaping their ususal praise on the lawbreakinh Bush administration henchman, asking the easiest "questions" imaginable, and generally looking a bit foolish in doing so. The Democrats were slinging their usual venom at Hayden, pressing him hard, but with no real pattern and with way too much anger. This is how the right wants you to act, remember? The only Dem who got mad about the big issue, and wasn't nitpicking over crappy litttle issues, was Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden. Ron brought the heat in discussing Hayden's unseemly role in both the NSA eavesdropping case and the NSA phone call database,. Unfortunately, this was the best exchange all day:


"General, having evaluated your words, I now have a difficult time with your credibility," Wyden said.
"So with all due respect, general, I can't tell now if you've simply said one thing and done another, or whether you have just parsed your words like a lawyer to intentionally mislead the public," Wyden said.
Hayden responded: "Well, senator, you're going to have to make a judgment on my character ... I was as full and open as I possibly could be."


Good, but not outstanding. Meanwhile, Hayden continued to spread the BA's lies about the legality of the now infamous ILLEGAL eavesdropping. There is no question whether or not it was legal. Why don't the Dems play that angle?

There was one more interesting comment from Hayden however.


LEVIN: Secretary of Defense for Policy, Mr. Feith, established an intelligence analysis, so within his policy office at the Defense Department. While the intelligence community was consistently dubious about links between Iraq and al Qaeda, Mr. Feith produced an alternative analysis asserting that there was a strong connection. Were you comfortable with Mr. Feith’s office approach to intelligence analysis?

HAYDEN: No, sir, I wasn’t. I wasn’t aware of a lot of the activity going on, you know, when it was contemporaneous with running up to the war. No, sir, I wasn’t comfortable.


Did he ever tell that to W or, more importantly, Veep Cheney? If not, then how can he ever be trusted to give his own opinion on security issues as the independent head of the CIA if his views clash with the Pres. or Veep?




Right-wing assault:

On county judges this time. The far-right group Kansas Judicial Watch of Johnson County is frantically attempting to get petitions signed so they can implemet thier right-wing takeover of that Kansas county's courts. With the rallying cry of "judicial activism", heard all over the country from con's, they're trying to get JC judges voted in rather than appointed. Why? So they can "elect" right-wing activist judges to turn the county into a right-wing Nazi compound. The only activist judges in this country are RW's that are twisting the Constitution to meet their frightening views.

The right is also going after the moderate (which really means "far-left") U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. It's a long story, so just read the article.