Politicized Intelligence

I like to think I have a pretty good memory for these things, but Hot Air commenter GeorgeJ reached way down the memory hole and pulled out a memo from 2003 I had forgotten about.

It's by a Democratic staffer in the Senate Intelligence Committee. It's about how they can use intelligence they gain about the war to embarrass and discredit the administration. The memo was leaked to Fox News. Here's a taste:

1) Pull the majority along as far as we can on issues that may lead to major new disclosures regarding improper or questionable conduct by administration officials. We are having some success in that regard. For example, in addition to the president's State of the Union speech, the chairman has agreed to look at the activities of the Office of the Secretary of Defense as well as Secretary Bolton's office at the State Department. The fact that the chairman supports our investigations into these offices and co-signs our requests for information is helpful and potentially crucial. We don't know what we will find but our prospects for getting the access we seek is far greater when we have the backing of the majority. (Note: we can verbally mention some of the intriguing leads we are pursuing.)

In other words, string along the majority (then Republican, of course) leadership in order to gain greater access to material that will damage the Administration.

Remember, by way of justification for all this, the people want them to do this:

Intelligence issues are clearly secondary to the public's concern regarding the insurgency in Iraq.

Read the whole thing and never forget it. Here's a little more context. It's the smokiest of guns, but as far as I remember no one was ever fired over it and it's almost gone from public memory.