The Bush Ship-Jumping Spreads…

Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, sent a “sharply worded letter” to Bush warning him that he may have violated the law by keeping Congress in the dark on several unnamed intelligence programs, and that Bush risked losing GOP support on national security matters.

All of a sudden, it’s not just predictable GOP’ers like Arlen Specter who are rattling the saber on Bush’s excessive secrecy. Hoekstra was, until now, a hard-core Bushie. Seems there’s just so much alienation your friends will take before they lash out at you in public. Make no mistake: Bush values loyalty above everything else. That Hoekstra was willing to publicly cross the president says A LOT.

N.Y. Times:

WASHINGTON, July 8 ? In a sharply worded letter to President Bush in May, an important Congressional ally charged that the administration might have violated the law by failing to inform Congress of some secret intelligence programs and risked losing Republican support on national security matters.

The letter from Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, did not specify the intelligence activities that he believed had been hidden from Congress.

But Mr. Hoekstra, who was briefed on and supported the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program and the Treasury Department’s tracking of international banking transactions, clearly was referring to programs that have not been publicly revealed.

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