Last November, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was struggling to turn Benghazi into a political controversy. At one point, he scheduled a press conference to raise questions he wanted answers to, unaware of the fact that there was a classified briefing underway on Benghazi — which McCain had been invited to, but did not attend.
It was an embarrassing setback, which left McCain looking foolish. He had questions, and could have received answers, but instead complained to the media about his lack of information.
As it happens, McCain isn’t the only one. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) recently complained to Attorney General Eric Holder about the scope of NSA surveillance, demanding to know, among other things, “How could the phone records of so many innocent Americans be relevant to an authorized investigation as required by the [Patriot Act]?”
Sensenbrenner’s interest was more noteworthy than most — the Wisconsin Republican did, after all, take the lead in writing the Patriot Act during the Bush/Cheney, so his questions and concerns carry some additional weight.
But just as McCain failed to get the available information on Benghazi, it turns out that Sensenbrenner failed to get the available information on NSA surveillance. MSNBC’s Adam Serwer reported that the congressman chose not to attend “classified briefings on the National Security Agency’s program over the last three years.”
via Skipped briefings lead to fewer facts – The Maddow Blog.
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