Little intelligence from Democrats on intelligence

Peter Hoekstra:

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Unfortunately, at a time when the threat to our nation from foreign terrorists is growing, the Democratic Congress refuses to show responsible leadership.

* Leaks to the news media have seriously undermined anti-terrorist intelligence programs. Instead of condemning these leaks for the damage they have done to our national security, Democrats have tried to exploit them to attack the Bush administration for spying on Americans, a charge that has been repeatedly proven untrue.

* The Democratic 9/11 bill that passed Congress last month included a clause to declassify the top line of the U.S. intelligence budget - a move that will give our foes more information on our activities, but do nothing to protect us from terrorists.

* The 2008 Intelligence Authorization bill cut human-intelligence programs but directed U.S. intelligence agencies to study global climate change.

We saw more irresponsible behavior last week as Congress debated updating the 1978 Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act (FISA).

For months, congressional Democrats ignored warnings from Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell that FISA's antiquated provisions were tying the hands of U.S. intelligence agencies from collecting against terrorist communications. Instead, they chose to use the FISA issue to accuse the Bush administration - without evidence - of conducting "warrantless wiretaps" of Americans.

Democrats tried to prop up the warrantless-wiretaps charge for partisan political purposes - by linking it to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, whom they're demonizing on the unrelated issue of the firing of federal prosecutors.

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We know that al Qaeda is planning more high-profile attacks. To prevent these attacks, we need good intelligence and leadership from our elected leaders. We can't wait for another attack before we start working together to protect our nation from radical jihadists and others who would do us harm.

We know we can't expect much in the way of intelligence from Democrats who are more concerned about the terrorist privacy rights than about preventing the next attack. Their position on the terrorist surveillance program is irresponsible for a party that pretends to be serious about national security. Wasting money on the Global warming scam when private entities are already flooding the zone with money to research that subject is also irresponsible.

The Democrats are learning the down side of being in the majority. They now have to defend the nonsense they are pushing.