Dizzy Mike McConnell isn't just some drunken beanbag dragged in off the street--he's the damn director of national intelligence, for pity's sake

I don't suppose there's any hope--until January of 2009, that is--of cleansing the federal government of the panoply of cranks, crooks, and ideological wackos it's infested with thanks to the people who pull the strings on the Chimpy the Prez puppet. The best we can hope on this front, it seems, is the slow drip-drip process by which they're run out of town one by one. (Bye-bye, HUD Secretary Alphonse Jackson!)

But really, can't something be done about the garden-variety nitwits?

Case in point: Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell. Oh sure, I've read those puff pieces about how brilliant he is, and how uniquely qualified for this impossible job. But every time he opens his mouth in public, it seems like shreds of his chewed-up brain come clattering out.

The latest public humiliation came in a speech at Furman University, down in the military country of South Carolina, where I guess the director figures they like their public figures not just dumb but mindlessly jingoistic--and did I mention dumb? Director Mike was blithering about the surprising resistance encountered in the Senate to the Bush regime's bully-boy attempts to ram through its dreadfully broadened bill on foreign intelligence surveillance, to replace FISA. From the darkness of his dementia he dribbled:

We had a bill go into the Senate. It was debated vigorously. There were some who said we shouldn't have an Intelligence Community. Some have that point of view. Some say the President of the United States violated the process, spied on Americans, should be impeached and should go to jail. I mean, this is democracy, you can say anything you want to say. That was the argument made. The vote was 68 to 29.

If the Bush regime employed anybody who was either honest, equipped with a working brain, or politically more sophisticated than the late Genghis Khan, the turd would have been fired on the spot, on the ground that he's too stupid not only for government service but for consuming precious oxygen. Yet there was general silence.

At least Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin noticed, and is making a stink. And today he dashed off a letter to our dear dense DNI. TPMMuckraker has the full text, but here's the working part:

As you correctly noted, the bill was the subject of vigorous debate. Many members of the Senate expressed serious concerns about the lack of checks and balances included in the legislation and the potential impact of the new authorities on the privacy and civil liberties of Americans. Many Senators were also concerned that retroactive immunity for companies alleged to have cooperated with the President's warrantless wiretapping program would undermine the rule of law.

However, I am not aware of any Senator saying or suggesting that "we shouldn't have an Intelligence Community" or that President Bush "should be impeached and should go to jail." I would therefore appreciate your providing a list of all statements made by Senators during the debate that you believe support these assertions. If there are no such examples, you should issue an immediate correction and an apology.

While all sides of this debate deserve to be heard, to falsely attribute statements to United States Senators serves only to mislead the American people. It also undermines your credibility and that of the position of Director of National Intelligence.

Now Director Mike doesn't say this crap to amuse himself, and I doubt that he's misspeaking. This stuff really seems to be happening in his tiny brain. Some of the voices he hears there, in fact, are quite interesting. Listen again:

"Some say the President of the United States violated the process, spied on Americans, should be impeached and should go to jail."

Now I'm quite sure that nobody said such a thing in the U.S. Senate. But I'll be happy to say it. Our Chimpy has committed, by conservative count, roughly a zillion grossly impeachable offenses. He should long since have been impeached and thrown out of office to make way for his assorted criminal trials. If I thought Director Mike had a shred of sanity, I might take hope from the fact that apparently he hears voices saying this in his head.

Still, it has to be remembered that this is our director of national intelligence, for goodness' sake. I understand that in the Bush regime "national intelligence" is an oxymoron. Nevertheless, he should at least provide a satisfactory reply to Senator Feingold's letter or have the grace to check into the nearest loony bin.

Here's hoping the senator will press the matter, and insist on some kind of accounting from Dizzy Mike.

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