Attention El Paso!

In our US House, El Paso's 16th district is represented by Silvestre Reyes. In an article in USA Today, Reyes made a comment that incensed me. I'm telling you because his website will only take comments from people in his district. Maybe he'll hear about it, or maybe you're from El Paso or know someone who is. And in any case, the whole country is stuck with him.

Reyes is the chairman (ranking Democrat) on the House Intelligence Committee, and he is apparently friends with Alberto Gonzales. AG AG certainly has a lot of friends. I take it that he's sweet, and charming, and dumb as a box of hammers. (I heard a great quote similar to that but far funnier, when I figure out who said it and find it, I'll put it here!)

Every time AG AG testifies, Reyes comes out and says something fawning. Remember, this AG is the guy who burst into the hospital room of the ailing John Ashcroft to try to twist his morphine-injected arm. This is the idiot who said the Geneva Conventions were quaint, argued against habeas corpus' legitimacy from the Constitution, and the hospital visit itself was for something so nefarious that Mr. Ashcroft lifted his broken body up and lectured Alberto about why it should never be legal.

But what does the Gentleman from El Paso say? The Chairman of the committee investigating the AG?

"When there are issues of national security at stake, I think certainly one should not question the motivation of individuals," Reyes told reporters. "I'm willing to accept the rationale behind it."

WHAT?!?!? Isn't that the MAIN time to question individual's motivations?!?!?!

Now, I first saw this on Salon.com's War Room, so I am not the first person to do a spit-take over this. And in doing some research this morning, this is not the only apologetic quote from Reyes. Why, according to Reyes, AG AG "explained it very well", and... [frankly, writing time got interrupted by Lil Mr. Patriot who got up early. I'm going to have to fill in these other obsequious quotes later.]

This, BTW, is the same Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who, when asked if Al-Qaeda was Sunni or Shi'a said the latter (it's the former) and when asked about Hezbollah answered, "Hezbollah. Uh, Hezbollah? ... Why do you ask me these questions at 5 o'clock? Can I answer in Spanish? Do you speak Spanish?" (Congressional Quarterly, Dec 2006)

Oh, El Paso, we love you. Love us back. Replace this idiot, loyal to his friend to the last, with someone who is loyal to us, the rest of the country, and our Constitution. And for those of you who have more time to write letters, write to Reyes and let him know this is not the time to be an apologist or a puppy who rolls over on command.