First, note here that although the LA Times, the Wall Street Journal and the NY Times all reported on Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, the GOP focuses only on the NYT, presumably because it is viewed as left leaning. The right leaning WSJ is getting a pass.
What is telling is the Rs turned down an opportunity to make condemnation of the reporting bipartisan.
Democrats reacted angrily to the GOP majority's refusal to allow them to offer an alternative that would also have expressed concerns about the unauthorized leak of classified information but would have left out language defending the legality of the program.
"What you have done is to hijack the virtually unanimous support for tracking terrorist financing into an endorsement of the way the Bush administration has conducted itself," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, author of the alternative.
"It is a campaign document," said Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California.
"There's never been any oversight of the program," she said. "You are asking us to vote on something that we absolutely cannot attest to."
The next thing that happens is that right-wingers will again blame Dems for being soft on terrorists. The R's get their political gain at the expense of public consensus. Win at any cost; the public good be damned. Pitiful.
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