Sunday School 2/4/18

Welcome to the Super Bowl Sunday edition of Sunday School. And no, there isn't a single valid reason to connect the game with this post, other than I'd feel very un-American if I didn't.

The talk today was about The Memo, a topic on which I offered my own very partisan analysis earlier today, before I started wandering the halls.

I started out today visiting Fox News Sunday, where I picked up a couple of nice partisan quotes for you. The first is from Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican who's on the House Intelligence Committee, where the memo originated.

Hillary Clinton and the DNC hired Fusion GPS, who then hired ironically a foreign agent to create this dossier that we know is just political garbage. It's no more credible than a $2 novel. And the FBI used that dossier to surveil a private US citizen who had no accusations against him except for he has associations with the Trump campaign. It's an absolute abuse of power and we just want the American people to know that.

And, in the other corner is  Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat who's also a member of the illustrious Intelligence Committee.

We believe that the memo that the Republicans put out shows not a single abuse, but a willingness to risk our republic to protect the president. So, I hope that Mr. Stewart is sincere when we go back to Washington this week that he would do all he could to protect Bob Mueller and Mr. Rosenstein and support the bipartisan legislation that's out there that would do that. And also that he would support releasing the Democratic memo that puts into context point by point the seriousness of this investigation as well as new, unseen evidence that bolsters the FBI's credibility.

Alrighty, then. Let's head off down the hall and see what's going on at CNN's State of the Union. Representative Brad Wenstrup, the Ohio Republican, feels the memo was about oversight.

My main concern is things like, did the court know that this was paid for by the Democratic National Committee and  I would be curious to ask a judge, did you know who paid for this dossier that's being presented to you, and would it have made a difference? I think it's more looking within the agency, something we have oversight over. They don't have oversight over us, we have oversight over them. That's the way I'm looking at it.

Jim Hines, a Democrat from Connecticut, countered that the other side has proof or something that the Nunes Memo is untruthful.

What we are going to learn when the Democratic -- if and when -- and we certainly hope that it is -- the Democratic memo is released which is sort of counterpoint to the Republican memo, what we will learn is that it is not true that this FISA warrant was awarded solely on the basis of the Steele dossier. We will also learn that the FBI, because they are very careful people, didn't mislead the judge, that the judge had some sense that this information came out of a political context. 

Where to next? This Week with George Stephanopoulos, where Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee presented his opinions.

If this was oversight, the committee members would want to read the underlying documents. They voted it down. I made a motion to bring the FBI in and ask the FBI these questions. You know, why was this included, why was that not included. That's what oversight looks like. That's the oversight we've done for 10 years... They voted against hearing from the FBI. When you do oversight, you haul them in under oath. you say, why was this included, why wasn't that included? The interest wasn't oversight. The interest was a political hit job on the FBI in the service of the president.

Texas Republican Will Hurd wanted to talk about the Russians.

Because ultimately I do believe we're letting the Russians win. The Russians got involved in our elections to erode trust in our democratic institutions. And when the press is criticizing Congress for shining light on issues, when Republicans and Democrats can't agree on stuff must because it was originated by someone in the other party, when there's  perceived friction between the executive branch the legislative branch and federal law enforcement when people think that there shouldn't be oversight, civilian oversight of law enforcement...

Let's see if we can find a good quote from someone to close it out, shall we? Oh -- how about John Brennan, former CIA director? He was on Meet the Press this morning.

I've had fights with the Dems over the years when I was in the Obama administration... But I never, ever saw the Democrats do something like this that was so partisan, so reckless and really just laid waste to the protocols that governed committees. And Devin Nunes, over the past several months, all the way back to the spring of last year I think has been engaged in these tactics purely to defend, make excuses and try to protect Mr. Trump... it really underscores just how partisan Mr. Nunes has been. He has abused the office of the chairmanship of HPCSI. And I don't say that lightly. 

See you around campus.