rep pete hoekstra

Here is an interesting fact the internet has pulled up. On December 28, 2009, President Obama made his first public comments about the attempted bombing on Christmas day – 3 days after the incident.

On December 28, 2001, President Bush made his first public comments about Richard Reid’s failed bombing attempt. That was 7 days after the attempt, which was on December 21, 2001.

It took Bush more than twice as long to respond as Obama and somehow the right thinks Obama took too long? It’s just another example of the right playing politics with the very deadly act of terrorism. Here’s another:

Hours after Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee and a Michigan gubernatorial candidate, sent out an email solicitation bashing "weak-kneed liberals" for their response to an attempted attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, the DNC went to work.

Remember within hours of this incident Hoekstra declared it a “terrorist attack”, which was really funny because the parallels between Christmas of this year and Richard Reid are so similar. The only real difference is one involved shoes and the other involved underwear. Hoekstra never said Reid was a “terrorist attack”.

Perhaps it’s even time for a little reminder about how dangerous Pete Hoekstra is to national security. Here’s Rachel Maddow back in November talking about Hoekstra leaking out information about how the government received data on Maj. Hassan, the Ft. Hood shooter:

Kind of sounds like it:

The CIA official who gave the command to destroy interrogation videotapes apparently acted against the direction of his superiors, the top Republican House Intelligence Committee member said Wednesday.

"It appears he hadn't gotten authority from anyone," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., speaking to reporters after the first day of closed testimony in the committee's investigation. "It appears he got direction to make sure the tapes were not destroyed."

Hoekstra said that raises the troubling prospect that there's a thread of unaccountability in the spy culture.

Yes there has been a troubling problem in our "spy culture". The problem is accountability. Now the question is when will it get fixed? Instead of always having fall guys, perhaps it's time for someone to say "oops"! Of course under a Bush regime the buck stops way before the White House. Hell the buck isn't even there!