Scummy is as scummy does

These people are so low they could walk under an ant without bending over.

Washington (AP, March 26) - Leading congressional Republicans announced plans Friday to seek declassification of 2-year-old testimony from Richard Clarke, hoping to show discrepancies between his recent criticisms of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies with flattering statements he made as a White House aide.

"Mr. Clarke has told two entirely different stories under oath," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said in a speech on the Senate floor.

The Tennessee Republican and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, want Clarke's July 2002 testimony before the joint House and Senate intelligence inquiry into the September 11, 2001, attacks available publicly. ...

The allegations against Clarke could linger for weeks as the declassification request winds through the appropriate agencies to ensure sensitive national security information isn't revealed.

The last paragraph being the significant one. This is simply a way to impugn his credibility without ever having to demonstrate it, a way to attack him without ever having to back it up, a way, that is, to avoid having to put up while not having to shut up.

(And this is, of course, after the White House allowed Fox News to reveal Clarke as the source of a briefing for reporters in which he supported White House policy, a briefing used - ineffectively - by Republican attack dogs on the 9/11 commission to go after him.)

Others have tried to strike back, for example Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) said sure, let's declassify that - and also Clarke's plan about dealing with al-Qaeda presented to the administration in January, 2002. He said he recalled nothing "inconsistent or contradictory" between the 2002 testimony and what Clarke said to the 9/11 Commission. And

California Rep. Jane Harman, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, also wants to see more information disclosed, including 27 pages of the congressional inquiry's report addressing the involvement of a foreign government in supporting some of the 19 hijackers - an item of dispute with the Bush administration.

"This is selective declassification, in my view, and it is all about discrediting an administration critic," Harman said.

We can all guess how far those requests will go.

There's a joke lawyers tell on themselves having to do with why lawyers were used in a certain laboratory experiment, the answer being "because there are some things even a rat just won't do." The GOP leaders are a much more deserving target.

Update, Can You Say "Fishing Expedition?" Dept.: Josh Marshall tips us to an MSNBC story stating that just hours after accusing Clarke of perjury, Frist backed off,

telling reporters that he personally had no knowledge that there were any discrepancies between Clarke's two appearances. But he said, "Until you have him under oath both times, you don't know."

Did I say ant? I meant worm.