Rusted Sky

Over on PowerLine, there's an interesting article called Power Line: Blowing the Whistle on the CRS - which shows that the Congressional Research Service,

which was chartered to be..

What is the Congressional Research Service

The Congressional Research Service is the public policy research arm of the United States Congress. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS works exclusively and directly for Members of Congress, their Committees and staff on a confidential, nonpartisan basis.

.. has apparently jumped over from being nonpartisan and confidential to downright loquatious to everyone who wants to talk to them and rather biased in what they leak.

Read the whole thing, including the linked letter signed by Peter Hoekstra, the Chairman of the Permanet Select Committee on Intelligence. And pay special attention to the footnote on page three.

I note with interest that you responded to this item with a Letter to the Editor on January 27, 2006, but have not yet responded to my January 9 letter. In the future, I hope that press coverage will not be a higher priority for CRS than members of Congress.

It's always good to remember who your paying customers are.

Seriously, I'm wondering if the permanent folks in Washington (the non-elected, that is) aren't attempting to set themselves up as the real powers behind the throne (so to speak). They certainly seem to be doing subtle sabotage to things that they shouldn't be touching. When the CRS comes out, speculating on classified intellegence gathering that they don't have access to in the first place, it's hard to come to the conclusion that they're doing it for the good of the country. It seems very self-serving and a grab for attention - especially from an organization that's supposed to provide "comprehensive and reliable analysis, research and information services that are timely, objective, nonpartisan, and confidential, thereby contributing to an informed national legislature."

And it's odd that they're leaking like a sieve - it must be some odd definition of confidential that I'm not aware of.

J.