Here are today's topics:

1. Kennedy and Specter Duke it Out


2. NSA Leaker Set for Frog Marching


3. Democrats Make Her Cry

Kennedy and Specter Duke it Out

Joe's Dartblog listened to the Alito hearings and heard Kennedy and Specter get in a spat over Kennedy's desire to hunt for more things Alito may have read after he graduated from Princeton in 1972. Here is what Joe wrote:

Can I Get A Big, Gigantic, Soul-Crushing “Oy”?

Senator Ted Kennedy just made the evening news. Per usual, he spoke more than Judge Alito himself. ‘Twas a sermon writ on awfully shaky ground. He focused on two issues, his line of questioning in both sustainable only if he absolutely ignored everything Judge Alito said in response, which he did. To be more accurate, Kennedy had a script in front of him that was unalterable. He did not deviate in any way, which by the end caused some rather embarrassing non-sequiturs, mostly involving Kennedy telling both Specter and Alito what they thought, did, said, or received in the mail despite protestations to the contrary. ... Kennedy started down the CAP path again. It went a little something like this…

Listen to this clip. It is magnificent. Thanks to C-SPAN for the video

NSA Leaker Set for Frog Marching

BlackFive read about one of the NSA leakers and put this terrific fisk together, which he titles NSA leaker set for frog marching:

Jan 10, 2006 — Russell Tice, a longtime insider at the National Security Agency, is now a whistleblower the agency would like to keep quiet.

Tice_2 Wrong, Russell Tice is a disloyal swine who should have kept quiet and remembered that the New York Times is not a government agency and certainly not the place to report your concerns about a classified program helping us avoid more terrorist attacks in the US.

"I specialized in what's called special access programs," Tice said of his job. "We called them 'black world' programs and operations."

But now, Tice tells ABC News that some of those secret "black world" operations run by the NSA were operated in ways that he believes violated the law. He is prepared to tell Congress all he knows about the alleged wrongdoing in these programs run by the Defense Department and the National Security Agency in the post-9/11 efforts to go after terrorists.

He should have told Congress everything he knows instead of spending satchels of NY Times expense money as he was stroked and loved by a Times operative who played him just like a KGB handler. Unloved uber-geeks deep in the bowels of our intel apparatus have always been the prime targets for espionage, whether by foreign states or internal opposition media. Tice didn't like what he saw, but instead of biting the bullet and going to the Inspector General or Congress, he took a good long draught off the Grey Lady's teat. A little ego pumping for the under-appreciated patriot, 'cuz you know that's how they sold him on selling out, and voila front page, book-pimping treasonous BS.

"The mentality was we need to get these guys, and we're going to do whatever it takes to get them," he said.

No s**t Sherlock, now I understand why we get such craptastic analysis from our intel organs, with Tice's keen grasp of the obvious he could see how evil mining for jihadis was. I mean can you believe innocent Americans had their requests for Russian brides scrutinized by a computer algorithim, I swear I can hear the black choppers, are you sure you don't hear them?

The same day The New York Times broke the story of the NSA eavesdropping without warrants, Tice surfaced as a whistleblower in the agency. He told ABC News that he was a source for the Times' reporters. But Tice maintains that his conscience is clear.

THE DAY THE STORY BROKE donut boy surfaces as a whistleblower, not 6 months ago and he was rebuffed and had no recourse but to help the Times and our enemies, but the day it hit the freakin' papers. That's a little too late there buddy, you shoulda' read the regulations you accuse the President of breaking, 'cuz they deal with the proper way to report illegal activity. I can guarantee that leaking the info to a dirtbag Times reporter with a book to flog is not the preferred protocol.

The NSA revoked Tice's security clearance in May of last year based on what it called psychological concerns and later dismissed him. Tice calls that bunk and says that's the way the NSA deals with troublemakers and whistleblowers.

Dum Dum doesn't remember he wasn't a whistleblower, he was a criminal leaker of classified information, and troublemaker seems like a fair cop. I look forward to the usual contortions of logic and language as the left attempts to fly the good leak/bad leak pig. Americans are a little sick of the hypocrisy of this and are bright enough to see that anyone who leaks to further their politcal agenda deserves a sharp sword. Here's to hoping that Tice's is the first of many disloyal heads to roll.

Wonderful stuff, that BlackFive.

Democrats Make Her Cry

A summary of all the attempted smears of Alito by the Democrats, as assembled by Republican Lindsey Graham, was so powerful that Alito's wife had to leave the hearing room in tears. As Kevin Aylward at Wizbang wrote:

After three days hearings an apology by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to the Judge Samuel Alito and his family for the behavior of his fellow committee members was enough to bring Martha Alito to tears.

Another fine moment in the bumbling careers of Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, Diane Feinstein, and Chuck Schumer.

Here's a clip from the start of Graham's discussion towards the end of the day's very long session.