GOP Reps Issa and King giggle while trying to derail Congressional hearings on detainee torture

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/15/AR2008071502670.html

For months, if not years, congressional Democrats had craved the chance to pounce on Doug Feith, the former No. 3 at the Pentagon and the brains behind the Iraq WMD claims, torture policy and other great adventures.

Yesterday, House Democrats finally had their quarry, wearing a tie almost as orange as a detainee's jumpsuit, compelled by subpoena to appear before the Judiciary Committee. And then -- an ambush! Republicans on the committee created a diversion, and Feith escaped unscathed.

...

Yesterday's opening statements were done, and Nadler turned to the witnesses. "I now want to welcome our -- "

"Mr. Chairman!" King called out. "Mr. Chairman! Is there time for an opening statement?" King, having thus seized the floor, encouraged everybody "to roll our minds back to that terrible day of September 11th, 2001. . . . The day that all of us looked at that blazing inferno tumbling down in New York."

Nadler tried to return to business, but Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who had been whispering and giggling with King like a schoolboy, interrupted anew. "A point of parliamentary inquiry!" he said. He raised three questions, the last of which was a request to "summon" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

...

The hearing was to have been a showdown between Feith and his main accuser, British lawyer Philippe Sands. Sands, in a recent book and magazine article, accused Feith of having a prominent role in the administration's discarding of the Geneva Conventions. The opening statements hinted at fireworks to come. Feith accused his accuser of "astonishing carelessness or recklessness," a "weave of inaccuracies and distortions," and "sloppy research, misquotations and unsubstantiated allegations."

Sands, in his opening statement, pointed out calmly that Feith was refuted by his own tape-recorded interview with Sands, which the lawyer offered to "make available to the committee."

[The Blue Flower]

1. What are they afraid of?

nt

[derby378]

2. 12 years as a minority in Congress, and Dems don't know how to down this nonsense?

Issa and King committed inexcusable acts, but they made Nadler and his fellow Dems look impotent.