Maybe it is time for her to retire if she is this out of it.

Her bio says she is a JD Harvard Law, and served as special council to the DoD, served on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, and she served in the Carter administration when FISA was passed.

This is no blond bimbo. The administration must have some very good liars to get all the illegalities past so many people with out anyone asking for the originating legal basis for the actions commonly known to be illegal.

Harman, as a ranking member of the intelligence committee, claiming to not know that the administration's warrantless surveillance program violated U.S. law, is about as believable as Clinton, as a member of the armed services committee, claiming to not know that the administration had granted immunity back in 2004 to all private U.S. contractors in Iraq.

We have got to stop this incessant claiming of ignorance on the part of our legislators. We elected them to be knowledgable about our laws.

Our public school elementary teachers are held accountable to a degree that many consider to be unreasonable, a degree established by these ignorant legislators in the federal NCLB law, while these same legislators couldn't even find Waldo in a Where's Waldo illustration.

Now, would somebody please go after Harman re her ignorantly writing another piece of illegal legislation, granting both the executive and legislative branches broadly sweeping powers over our own citizens' first amendment rights, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act? These totally un-American bill is being rushed through Congress, with not a single legislator having the guts to actually read it, scrutinize it, and then stand up to it. My own representative is completely ignorant about this Harman-initiated bill, as evidenced by her response to my inquiries into her failure to not cast a vote when it came up on the House floor, yet is completely in support of it for reasons that clearly show that she hasn't read the damn bill.

I agree, her excuses sound more than a bit disingenuous.

However, since Bush and his cronies insist we give them the benefit of the doubt...

Consider the possibility that Harman and the rest of the "Gang of Eight" were not given all the facts. Given this administrations track record of telling lies and half-truths, that is not outside the realm of possibility.

"I didn't know it was illegal"...

Of course, there was no way that I could have known it was legal, either, so.... let's just vote it in anyway. After all, although we have all known these past years that the president and Republican party was not to be trusted. But what the heck... I don't have enough time in the week to promote myself AND actually study all this surveillance stuff, torture, illegal war, misuse of public funds, disregarding the Constitution, so I have to stick to my priorities... promoting myself, partying, fundraising... promoting myself again...

These clowns in Washington have NO BUSINESS representing this country of ours. They are nothing but mobsters and opportunists, caring NOTHING for anything past their own climb up the ladder. What has happened to those folks who actually CARED enough about our youth to research and find ways to avoid rather than promote wars... who cared enough about our freedom to protect it rather than destroy it, cared enough about our heritage that they studied it, rather than just feed themselves at the trough as our culture declines...

What a WASTE!

Of course, we will now vote them all back into office again, won't we?

IIRC, the Gang of 8 was NOT briefed, so if she says it was, that would be odd. The stories to date have been that not only did the WH illegally (under the National Security Act) fail to brief the whole of the House and Senate Intelligence committees, but also that the WH went that illegality one step further and failed to even brief the Gang of 8, the minimum back-up briefing allowable.

Instead, the WH "briefed" only the chair and ranking member of each Intel committee. A made up "Gang of 4"

IIRC, the Gang of 8 was NOT briefed, so if she says it was, that would be odd. The stories to date have been that not only did the WH illegally (under the National Security Act) fail to brief the whole of the House and Senate Intelligence committees, but also that the WH went that illegality one step further and failed to even brief the Gang of 8, the minimum back-up briefing allowable.

Instead, the WH "briefed" only the chair and ranking member of each Intel committee. A made up "Gang of 4"

This is the ole "The gun didn't know I was loaded" defense. I'm sorry but as much as I wanna buy what she's selling, Harman's excuses are BS. She's smart enuff to know what the law is but too chicken to admit she was cowed by Bush & his surrogates' GWOT" rationale.

-AF

Andrew Sullivan Is A Fraud

"The premise of strong congressional intelligence oversight is that Members will guard sensitive information."

Seriously, this is a shocking statement coming from someone in her position. She does realize the structure of our federal government I hope. That congress is an actual separte and distinct branch?

I would be more convinced by Harman's story that she was lied to if she were vigorously prosecuting the people who lied to her. If she is not on board with impeachment, or demanding felony prosecutions of WH staff, then her explanations fail to convince me.

Harman's position makes one wonder just what the Republicans have discovered about her by using the NSA's illegal wiretapping.

I don't particularly think it unlikely that Bush and company lied to Harmon; the only thing in question is the variety of lie that they used and how hard she tried to check it. This stuff being 'secret' would put a real crimp in a person's verification capabilities, wouldn't it?

Harman's claims should be subject to a Grand Jury review.