Good Show, Kennedy - More Please

Ted Kennedy got himself some camera time on the floor of the Senate chamber and accused the CIA of a cover up, evoking the 18 1/2 minute gap of tap from the Waterate Tapes of disgraced crook Tricky Dick Nixon.

Why is this so good? There are elements that have proved themselves quite ready to torpedo this Administration. There are elements in the intelligence apparatus that despise Dick Cheney and wouldn't cross the street to piss on him if he was on fire.

He rhetorically asks:

"What would cause the CIA to take this action? The answer is obvious -- cover up. The agency was desperate to cover up damning evidence of their practices. In a letter to agency employees yesterday, CIA Director Michael Hayden claimed that the tapes were a security risk because they might someday “leak” and thereby identify the CIA employees who engaged in these practices.

But that excuse won’t wash. I am second to no one in wanting to protect the brave men and women of the CIA. But how is it possible that the Director of the CIA has so little faith in his own agency?*

Does the Director believe the CIA’s buildings are not secure?*

Would it be beyond the agency’s technical expertise to preserve the tapes while hiding the identity of its employees?*

Does the Director believe that the CIA’s employees cannot be trusted not to leak materials that might harm the agency?*

Or does he know that the interrogation techniques are so abhorrent that they could not remain unknown much longer?"

The last question has to do with the crime itself, and will therefore go unpunished, the other questions are about the cover-up - and the answer for each "* question" is that it was an order from somewhere not in Langley.

Kennedy is teasing out an answer to each "* question" somewhere along these lines: "Cheney made me do it."