Great cartoon:

If you haven't read (or at least skimmed) Froomkin's "Cheney's Still Got It" - which comments on Cheney's hand in muscling the Senate Intelligence Committee so that they'd back off, do so now. Or, to save time, here are the key lines: (emp add)

FROOMKIN: Faced with the frightening prospect of public hearings and active Congressional oversight into President Bush's contested domestic spying program, the White House sent out its big dog -- Vice President Cheney -- to bring straying moderate Republicans to heel. [...] Cheney took point in the White House effort to quash a full-blown investigation into the program. And the guy still gets the job done.

QUOTING NY TIMES: The agreement, hashed out in weeks of negotiations between Vice President Dick Cheney and Republicans critical of the program, dashes Democratic hopes of starting a full committee investigation because the proposal won the support of Senators Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine. [...] Mr. Hagel said the group worked out the last-minute deal in long telephone calls with Mr. Cheney; the White House counsel, Harriet E. Miers; and Stephen J. Hadley, the assistant to the president for national security.

Then take a look at today's Pat Oliphant cartoon.


posted by Quiddity at 3/09/2006 07:57:00 AM