November 2006 is The Nation's Last Chance!

I've got to go to the library and edit crosswords today, but I thought I'd call your attention to this very smart post by Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/008284.php

It says in essence that a.) Tyler Drumheller, former head of covert operations in Europe in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, just got interviewed on 60 Minutes saying that he never believed the Niger uranium story that was used to bolster fears of Saddam's nuclear weapons capabilities, and told people so, but b.) not only has his negative assessment never been mentioned by the Bush administration (no surprise there), but he was interviewed by the House Republicans in charge of "investigating" the run-up to the war. And yet his interview never showed up in the final report. [This is a blunt summary; Mr. Marshall has the more nuanced version.] So, as you might have suspected, the "investigations" were also deeply flawed and designed merely to paper over Dear Leader's sins, not to actually make anyone accountable.

He makes a further interesting point one entry down:

This is the issue. Talk of impeachment, real or play-acted, is beside the point. . .The key is subpoena power.

Little of what's happened in the last five years would have been possible were it not for the fact that there was no political institution with subpoena power in Washington not under the control of the White House. . .

The White House and the entire DC GOP for that matter is just sitting on too many secrets and bad acts. The bogus investigations of the pre-war intel is just one example, if one of the most resonant and glaring. Keeping control of the House and the Senate is less a matter of conventional ideological and partisan politics as it is a simple matter of survival.

They have too much to cover up. They could not survive sunlight.

If you aren't reading Talking Points Memo and Washington Monthly on a regular basis, you're missing out, I tell ya.