You want a serious congressional shitstorm-haboob-tsunami-twister-hurricane? This would be it. The folks at Bill Moyers's shop sent this along today, and you may recall that we discussed the possibility of Udall's doing this very thing a week or so ago.
"Transparency and disclosure are critical to the work of the Senate intelligence committee and our democracy, so I'm going to keep all options on the table to ensure the truth comes out," Udall said. That includes a little-used privilege of the U.S. Constitution called the "Speech or Debate Clause," which has been suggested by civil libertarians to shake loose the information. "I mean, I'm going to keep all options on the table," said Udall when asked specifically about that method. As written, the Speech or Debate Clause gives lawmakers near-blanket immunity from prosecution when speaking on the floor of the U.S. House or Senate - even if they reveal classified information."
The details in the Foreign Policy makes me wonder whether or not the real hidden history of the Obama administration is that during its entire run, the CIA and the rest of the intelligence apparatus never was truly under control, or if the president simply got rolled, over and over again. Hearing that Denis McDonough is tight with CIA chief John Brennan, and that he and Dianne Feinstein are meeting secretly to cut deals on exactly how many tire-tracks any release of the torture report will contain, does not fill me with optimism that any oversight of these people even is possible any more. It would be Madison's own irony if Udall were to use the basic tool of representative democracy to hang the torturers out to dry. Or, interestingly, would the networks even carry his speech? What if the White House came to the people who run the three news divisions, and the people who run the cable news nets, or even the people who turn the cameras on for CSPAN, and tell them, hey, cover this speech and you'll be complicit in revealing classified information, and, if you do, then ISIS Ebola guys will kill us all in our beds. Nice little network you have there. Be a shame if a federal warrant happened to it. You don't think the TV guys would cave? They'd fold like a cardboard suitcase.
Udall should do this anyway. And there are some people who are encouraging him, as it turns out. Do it, senator. Make me glad I stood at all those plant gates for your father. There has been too much sympathy given to these particular devils.
Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.
