Sen. Pat Roberts (Fucktard-KS) issued a thunderous statement today to which we will give a ringing endorsement:

”We cannot continue to operate in a system where the government takes steps to counter terrorism…without any regard for protection of lives, sources and legal methods,” said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who as intelligence chairman has been briefed extensively on the efforts.

In a letter, Roberts asked National Intelligence Director John Negroponte to order an assessment of damage caused by…the government’s most classified programs. He said he was particularly interested in the impact of…the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program and its program to monitor terror finances.

Minor editing to remove superfluous verbiage and emphasize the important points. We will get firmly behind Sen. Roberts and push for just such an investigation….as soon as he actually asks for it.

Because of course what he actually said was not that these horrid, unconstitutional, extralegal (at very best), illegal (far more likely) programs should be the subject of hearings. That they should be dragged out into the sunlight of open disclosure and discussion would be wonderful and a mere four or five years overdue. But no, it’s the newspaper coverage of these outrages that should be what we are horrified about and eager to punish. His actual statement, with deleted parts emphasized:

”We cannot continue to operate in a system where the government takes steps to counter terrorism while the media actively works to disclose those operations without any regard for protection of lives, sources and legal methods,” said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who as intelligence chairman has been briefed extensively on the efforts.

In a letter, Roberts asked National Intelligence Director John Negroponte to order an assessment of damage caused by the disclosure of the government’s most classified programs. He said he was particularly interested in the impact of stories on the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program and its program to monitor terror finances.

But go for it anyway Sen. Patsy. I’m in your corner all the way. Because, you cowardly puke, traitor to your oath, crapper on the Constitution, and betrayer of every man and woman who ever died to preserve representative democracy and freedom in this country or any other, you think these programs are so swell and vital and essential? Defend them in the public square like a man.

Of course you know your Dear Leader will never let that happen, so you can strut around in your tissue-paper codpiece pretending to be a big tough dude kicking newspapers around. Feh. I aim my backside towards your benighted state and fart in your general direction.