In the category of no effing duh:
The nation’s top two intelligence officers expect to be replaced by President-elect Barack Obama early in his administration, according to senior intelligence officials.
A number of influential congressional Democrats oppose keeping Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and CIA Director Michael V. Hayden in their posts because both have publicly supported controversial Bush administration policies on interrogation and telephone surveillance. One Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee said there is a “consensus” view on the matter.
In fact, if Congress had not retroactively immunized their illegal wiretapping crimes, we would be talking about frog-marching Hayden and McConnell into the federal courts. And, you know, I’m a practical realist. I don’t expect senior intelligence officials to resign everytime the president asks them to violate a law, only when the president asks them to violate the Constitution. So, the people have a right ‘to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects’, and ‘the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.’ It’s really not too much to ask.
