What is with the constant use of the euphemistic word “improper”? If it’s illegal, say it’s illegal. The word “improper” implies they just made a social faux pas, like using the dessert fork for eating their salad.
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The worst of that exchange came out of Brennan’s mouth at the end: his officious “separation of powers goes both ways” baloney.
The balance of power between the Congress and the Executive (esp. re national security) has gone only one way for decades now. Brennan knows this; he lived through much of that power displacement in the course of his career in government. His insinuation that Wyden made some unprecedented power grab by pushing back against this erosion is nonsense. Even if in this particular incident Brennan’s argument had merit… he knew Wyden was using it to get back at them for years of stiffing the Senate on matters of oversight. Years during which our Executive branch (under Bush/Cheney) used an excess of power and autonomy to violate the Geneva Conventions in the most essential ways.
Despite how debased our legislative bodies are at this point in history, democracy still resides mainly in our legislatures not in either of the other 2 branches. Every tinpot dictatorship has an executive and a retrograde, captured judiciary after all. The idea here is we are supposed to be governed by the will of the electorate. Not the doyens of the Deep State.
At present we aren’t functionally a democracy as our ancestors would reckon it. Wyden’s modest peeping noises won’t change that, but they’re better than silent acquiescence.
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That senator who said, “When the American people find out how their government has interpreted the Patriot Act, they are going to be stunned”? That was Ron Wyden. He’s been making noises about the surveillance state and about getting rid of John Brennan in particular for years.
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If Brennan wasn’t with the CIA, he’d be in GITMO the rest of his life enjoying the “amenities” served there to enemies of the state.
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Yeah but clicks. Consider the source.
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Was it illegal? Those same lawmakers seemed pretty happy with CIA spying. They setup special secret courts, secret prisons, and made surveilling everyone legal with the ‘patriot’ act.
I can see where the CIA is coming from. Congress made this monster and now they are upset the monster acts the way they told it to.
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…people in government…allow things to get so terrible, until it happens to them. Then all of the sudden it is the worst thing in the world…
Other people, too.
Most people, actually.
(Ok, pretty much everyone. Except for the corrected part.)
Yeah, well, everyone who’s not one loves to fuck with the little people.
But, but… CLINTON!
A flip out is not a fair characterization.
I see a dude sweating hard in the midst of a very wordy denial.
Falls a bit short of Clinton’s, “it depends on the meaning of the word ‘is’”, but along the same spectrum.
Clicked hoping for a tantrum of some variety.
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