The last of 3

Excellent point Titus.

The congressional oversight/approval of CIA post 9/11 is a matter of record. This is akin to the water boarding partisanship that erupted in early 09'. Pelosi loudly chimed in on bashing the Bush administration over this practice (because the hard left base was frothing at the mouth to investigate the issue now that Obama had won) only for the public to discover that she was briefed multiple times on water boarding & raised NO objections. And after Mrs. Pelosi stepped in it when stating, " ... they [CIA] lie to us all the time", trying to justify such blatant hypocrisy, I doubt any senior Democrat in Congress wants a repeat on a much larger scale such as would occur with an agency-wide Justice Department criminal investigation. I can't help but believe two things - 1.) Holder is off the Party reservation with this & 2.) he would only do so with the consent of his boss. And that's the political rub for Obama. The president is on the one hand publicly stating that investigations should NOT go forward, yet on the other he isn't stopping investigations that would be halted with one phone call from the Oval Office! He can't continue to have it both ways much longer.

None of this makes any sense except to appeal to the hard core leftists within the Party. I sincerely wish that the Republican ideological base had as much sway with its' leaders.

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As to the subject title, the last of the triumvirate of Kennedy men most associated with American politics passed away late last night, Ted Kennedy.

Now for me to be honest about this man today (at least his post Vietnam ideology), would be in poor taste. And to do anything less would be phony. So I will simply offer my sincere condolences to the family, especially given this death is on the heels of another of that iconic family's losses.

And not to be crass (but given the Kennedy affiliation and affinity with national politics its not entirely inappropriate), but it is well known that public health care is THE issue Ted Kennedy has championed for many years & the president made no secret that of all the congressional plans he wanted Teddy's. I believe that in coming days you will see the White House slowly & very carefully ease in to "we owe it to Ted" to try & get this passed; and ironically enough, because of the Massachusetts state law I cited 2 posts ago (which Kennedy himself help effect), the president just lost his filibuster proof senate until at least January 0f 2011, and perhaps for the remainder of his presidency, so they can no longer do this along purely Party lines.

Again, I'm not being purposely crass, but I know full well that if anyone could, the Kennedy family would appreciate the immediate jump to the politics of a political icon's passing.