Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community

Silvestre Reyes Must Be Defeated

by BooMan
Thu Dec 11th, 2008 at 09:27:31 AM EST

I hate to say it, but one of our highest priorities should be to find a way to replace Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-El Paso) as the chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. I don't want to dislike Rep. Reyes, but he simply is the wrong man for the job. Today we read that Reyes wants to keep Bush's directors of National and Central Intelligence in place, and that "he also recommended to Obama's transition team that some parts of the CIA's controversial alternative interrogation program should be allowed to continue."

One possible reading of this is that Reyes is merely being polite and he's just maintaining good relations with the existing Intelligence Community. I understand the game, believe me. But once you start going on about keeping the torture regimen in place, you've completely lost me. Even if you think the CIA needs to reserve the right to go beyond the Army Field Manual on occasion, you have to be clear that you renounce torture. Rep. Reyes doesn't seem to understand the damage that has been done to our reputation under the leadership of McConnell and Hayden and their predecessors.

Rep. Reyes isn't the brightest crayon in the box to begin with. I think the chair of Intelligence should know that al-Qaeda is not a primarily Shi'ite organization. Rep. Reyes thought that they were as recently as December 2006. It should have disqualified him from taking the gavel a month later, but it didn't.

Rep. Reyes is going to have the chair in this upcoming Congress, and there's really nothing we can do about that. But I sure would be interested in supporting someone in the El Paso area who wants to challenge him in a primary. I think a challenger would find a lot of financial support from all over the country. It's not like Reyes is an unpleasant person or that he doesn't deliver for his district. This isn't personal. But we need Democrats that put human and constitutional rights first. Nowhere is that more true than in our Intelligence chairs.

Silvestre Reyes Must Be Defeated | 11 comments (11 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Silvestre Reyes Must Be Defeated (none / 0)

I hate to say it,

You shouldn't. His stance is unacceptable.

Recommended by Hideo Kojima

by robertdsc on Thu Dec 11th, 2008 at 08:29:10 AM EST

Re: Silvestre Reyes Must Be Defeated (none / 0)

well, you're right, I shouldn't feel bad, but it feels a bit like picking on the retarded.

by BooMan on Thu Dec 11th, 2008 at 08:37:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Silvestre Reyes Must Be Defeated (none / 0)

What?

I gotta say, that's a foreign concept for me. If anything, the truly dumb politicians get more criticism from me because they're more dangerous. Stupid politicians should be as a matter of course be mocked and primaried against by their own parties. And ignorant politicians who refuse to improve their knowledge in areas where they have responsibilities should be treated even more harshly than the stupid ones.

I never let W's obvious lack of any intellectual capabilities let me feel a whiff of sympathy for him (except for a short period right after 9/11 when it was clear the man was totally in over his head and wasn't expecting to have to be an actual leader - and it showed). And if anything I tend to be even harsher on Democrats than Republicans when they elect folks who don't have the brains to be in the job they have because at least the Republicans have the excuse that no one truly smart or well-informed would want to be a Republican these days, so the pickings for Republican politicians is kind of slim.

by nonynony on Thu Dec 11th, 2008 at 09:39:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Silvestre Reyes Must Be Defeated (none / 0)

The reason Dubya elicits so little sympathy is twofold.

he's really not dumb.
he's an arrogant jerk

by BooMan on Thu Dec 11th, 2008 at 10:03:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Silvestre Reyes Must Be Defeated (none / 0)

Reyes is owned by the military-industrial complex. There are people throughout Congress who seem to end up in places of power and are there to cover for the army, the CIA, the FBI, etc. They end up on the intelligence committees, the armed services committees, etc. A lot of them show up on special investigations with national security implications and will negotiate with others to go so far and no farther. They're gatekeepers and enablers. Reyes may be the most obvious and a doofus to boot, but they're all over the place. I'm thinking of a Representative from Iowa in the 80s and 90s, a Dem, who couldn't find an intelligence connection to any scandal if the DCI was biting his ass and waving top secret papers. Under current game rules, if Reyes disappears then there will be someone to replace him.

by Bob In Pacifica on Thu Dec 11th, 2008 at 09:46:43 AM EST

Re: Silvestre Reyes Must Be Defeated (none / 0)

there is always the question of how he is owned.

As a senior member of both the Armed Services and Select Intelligence Committees, Reyes is a key member of Congress on Defense and military issues. He is credited with the recent success of Fort Bliss and White Sands military bases in the most recent Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decisions by the Department of Defense.

Pretty simple, really.

by BooMan on Thu Dec 11th, 2008 at 10:02:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Silvestre Reyes Must Be Defeated (none / 0)

I suspect with Rep. Reyes, everything's pretty simple.

Anyone remember the song "Money" by the Lovin' Spoonful?

by Bob In Pacifica on Thu Dec 11th, 2008 at 05:44:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Silvestre Reyes Must Be Defeated (none / 0)

To ensure that he understands the meaning of torture, why doesn't Rep. Reyes voluntarily submit to some of the more ingeniously conceived methods of persuasion that our intelligence guys have come up with. For example, lack of sleep, surrounding noise, being set on by dogs, mild electrical jolts to one's genitals, and, of course, that infinitely popular technique; waterboarding.

Then, the good Congressman would be qualified to carry out his duties as chair of the House Committee on Intelligence.

Suppose you scrub your ethical skin until it shines, but inside there is no music, then what? Kabir

by Dongi 2 on Thu Dec 11th, 2008 at 10:06:49 AM EST

Re: Silvestre Reyes Must Be Defeated (none / 0)

From Common Dreams:

Go to The New Yorker's Web site (www.newyorker.com) and you can read about Gen. Antonio Taguba.

He investigated the atrocities at Abu Ghraib, and briefed Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others the day before the secretary testified before Congress.

Don't read this if you're squeamish.

In the June 2007 New Yorker piece, Taguba recounted:

In the meeting, the officials professed ignorance about Abu Ghraib. "Could you tell us what happened?" Wolfowitz asked. Someone else asked, "Is it abuse or torture?"

At that point, Taguba recalled, "I described a naked detainee lying on the wet floor, handcuffed, with an interrogator shoving things up his rectum, and said, `That's not abuse. That's torture.' There was quiet."

Well, Gen. Taguba, as Robert Louis Stevenson once said, "The cruelest lies are often told in silence."

On political conservatives: "I was so shocked I nearly dropped the Bible I was using to help me masturbate into my gun." Bill Maher

by lyvwyr101 (greatbear215@aol.com) on Thu Dec 11th, 2008 at 10:17:43 AM EST

Re: Silvestre Reyes Must Be Defeated (none / 0)

That's some strong words. How do we put them into action? You think his district is going to toss out their guy JUST when he made chair, and someone who can bring back funds for his district?

Good luck, but I don't see what possible avenue of attack there is. Torture does not win over the American people, sadly (thanks in part to fantasies of Jack Bauer in their heads).

by MNPundit on Thu Dec 11th, 2008 at 02:08:17 PM EST

Re: Silvestre Reyes Must Be Defeated (none / 0)

Anyone else wonder if Reyes reticence to "rock the boat" might have something to do with his potential legal exposure to war crimes? Seriously. I say investigate, to the fullest extent possible, what has gone on in the last 8 years. But should that come to fruition, I can see a lot of Democrats, especially those in leadership positions, being taken down in the process. As far as I'm concerned. . . Fuck. Them. There is NO excuse for torture. None.

My World Without Gravity

by jack fate on Thu Dec 11th, 2008 at 05:33:14 PM EST

Silvestre Reyes Must Be Defeated | 11 comments (11 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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