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November 30, 2006

Wonders Never Cease

In the kind of revelation that would leave Claude Rains "shocked," the Democrats have decided that at least one of their campaign promises is too much work. Yes, after battering the Republicans senseless over their failure to fully implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, the Democrats have decided to...not fully implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.

Now, they will be implementing most of the recommendations, at least, all the ones that don't cost them anything. But when it comes to one of the things that could really make a difference in how our intelligence services operate, they've decided to take a pass. Rather than shift control of the intelligence services' budgets to the intelligence committees who are responsible for oversight of intelligence, they're going to leave it under the control of the armed services committee. This was one of the better recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, as by giving the people responsible for oversight control of the pursestrings, Congress will be in a much better position to ensure our intelligence agencies are doing the right things. By failing to do this, Congressional oversight of intelligence will remain an unloaded weapon: the committee can make recommendations, but since they can't punish the agencies if they fail to improve, the agencies have little or no incentive to change.

This is a significant disappointment. I was not overly impressed by the Democrats' blanket adoption of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations; Congress' job is to do the legwork necessary to see what changes need to be made, after all. But if they're going to throw out one of the most valuable recommendations because it's unpopular among their own rank-and-file, then it becomes pretty easy to see what matters most to the Democrats. Hint: it's not national security.

But for those who want to jump on this post as evidence of buyer's remorse, you're wasting your time. The Republicans weren't willing to do this, either, and every bit of evidence gathered over the last five years suggests that the Republicans only saw national security as a good issue for them during election season. The fact the Democrats will probably view it similarly is disappointing, but hardly evidence that voting for Democrats was a mistake.