The House Ignorance Committee

The incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Silvestre Reyes, does not know whether Al Qaeda is Sunni or Shi’ite, and, what’s more, he doesn’t think it matters.

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John D. writes:

This is rich. The US has just been saddled with a Mexican-American congressman who holds only an associates degree, and who says that the Spanish language is easier for him to comprehend than English, to lead the House Intelligence Committee. To top it off, he (along with many of our leaders) knows less than an acceptable minimum about our nation’s greatest enemies. God help us.

LA replies:

Here’s another gem from the Honorable Chairman. He told the intrepid reporter, Jeff Stein:

“And I agree with you—we ought to expend some effort into understanding them [meaning the difference between Sunnis and Shi’ites]. But speaking only for myself, it’s hard to keep things in perspective and in the categories.”

This amazing statement reminds me of a line I heard on a shortlived tv series starring Mary Tyler Moore in the 1980s. It was a conceived as a darker version of the old Mary Tyler Moore show. In the premier episode, one of the supporting characters, a ditsy female, says, “You know, I’m so mixed up and confused all the time. And that’s not good, when you’re a city planner.”

So, Reyes is telling us that he has a hard time keeping things in perspective and in the categories. And that’s not good, when you’re the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 09, 2006 06:01 PM | Send