You know it’s bad when Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, writes a letter like this:

Finally, Mr. President, but perhaps most importantly, I want to reemphasize that the Administration has the legal responsibility to “fully and currently” inform the House and Senate Intelligence Committees of its intelligence and intelligence-related activities. Although the law gives you and the committees flexibility on how we accomplish that (I have been fully supportive of your concerns in this respect), it is clear that we, the Congress, are to be provided all information about such activities. I have learned of some alleged Intelligence Community activities about which our committee has not been briefed. In the next few days I will be formally requesting information on these activities. If these allegations are true, they may represent a breach of responsibility by the Administration, a violation of law, and, just as importantly, a direct affront to me and the Members of this committee who have so ardently supported efforts to collect information about our enemies. I strongly encourage you to direct the elements of the Intelligence Community to fulfill their legal responsibility to keep the Intelligence Committees fully briefed on their activities. The U.S. Congress simply should not have to play ‘Twenty Questions’ to get the information that it deserves under our Constitution.

I believe Hoekstra just awoke from a coma as he is not aware of the violations of the other 750 laws Bush claimed the authority to ignore, assuming he honestly has endeavored to note on each law whether or not he intends to violate it, and therefore he has not violated any laws except those to which he added his own self-authorized “permissive slip”.  But we know that is not true.  The dear congressman also seems uninformed of the administration’s violations of the First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Telecommunications Act, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Stored Communications Act, Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Communications Act, Geneva Conventions, and Uniform Code of Military Justice.  Most critical of all, however, is his abuse of the Constitution’s checks and balances between the branches of government, a move accomplished by seizing indiscriminately some of Congress’ law-making powers and some of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Constitution-interpreting powers.  And I’m quite certain I’ve missed many more than I’ve listed when one considers international law, the laws of other soverign states, and the great many “quiet” violations that are as yet unreported or undiscovered, or both.

I think the Representative from Michigan is either unfit to serve due to some traumatic head injury that has erased these many years past, or he is blinded by partisanship to the violations against others but adamantly rabid when such despotic behavior pees in his own sandbox.

That said, I thought that part of the letter was right nice.