Was just now watching yesterday's Hardball, and Jay Rockefeller, the outgoing Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, made a little bit of news.
As reported by Raw Story,
Following Wednesday's revelation by the former National Security Agency analyst that President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program had spied on everyone, quite contrary to what the administration had claimed, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) told MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Thursday that he was "quite prepared to believe" the allegations.
He added: "I think they went after anyone they could get -- including me."
Coming from the guy who did everything in his power to push for telecom amnesty, that's one hell of a comment.
And the strangeness continues. Following a discussion on torture, Jay concludes:
[Let's] look at what has happened and decide what we want to do. If we want to hold people accountable then I think that's perfectly appropriate. I think all of us, uh, need to be held accountable.
You don't say, Jay? Some of us more than others, I think.
Jay Rockefeller was one of the key Democrats briefed on the torture methods who never objected. But it's far worse than that. In September, 2006, Rockefeller was one of 12 Senate Democrats to vote in favor of the Military Commissions Act, one of the principal purposes of which was to explicitly authorize the CIA's "enhanced interrogation program" to proceed (even though it continues to be illegal under the Geneva Conventions). Thus, not only did Rockefeller remain silent when continuously briefed on illegal torture methods by the CIA, he then voted to legalize those methods by voting in favor of one of the most Draconian laws in modern American history. That law also retroactively immunized government officials from any liability for past lawbreaking.
Interesting times we're living through. And particularly interesting for an old Bush-enabler like Jay Rockefeller.
[Quoted sections at 2:00 and 4:15]