Short version: Eric Holder got to be testifying before the Senate on a day where the big news was that the NSA was having Verizon pull its phone logs and hand them over to the federal government. Mark Kirk had an opportunity to ask questions.
Hi-jinks, as they say, ensued.
For those of you who don’t have video, here’s a rough translation/summary of what Holder and Kirk said:
Kirk: Please tell me that the Executive branch of the government wasn’t so transcendentally stupid as to monitor calls made by the Legislative branch of the government. You understand that this is a big Biden deal, right?
Holder: I will now indicate how much I hate you personally by saying With all due respect, Senator. Hopefully, this insult will distract you from noticing that I am not answering “No,” which almost certainly means that the fumble-fingered Model UN rejects that we inexplicably keep hiring as staffers have, in fact, been monitoring your phone calls –
Kirk (interrupting): I would interrupt you and say that the correct answer would be to say that “No, we stayed within our lane and I’m assuring you that we did not spy on Members of Congress.”
Oh, wait. That last sentence from Mark Kirk isn’t a translation. It’s a literal quote. Please note that Mark Kirk is a Republican from Illinois; if there’s a Senator out there who has a vested interest in not picking an unnecessary fight with the Obama machine, it’s Kirk. And yet, here the Senator is, ripping chunks off of the Attorney General. I hope, for Barack Obama’s sake, that he’s satisfied with the way that Eric Holder is doing his duty as a meat shield; because Obama’s never again going to be able to use Holder to get things done…
Moe Lane (crosspost)
Illinois Republicans worked very hard to get Mark Kirk elected over known crook and mafioso Alexi Giannoulias.
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Glad to see Sen. Kirk was worth the effort.
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Now, will the people in actual, you know, RED EFFIN’ STATES, please quit putting up such utter garbage as McConnell and Graham and McCain? If Illinois can put up Kirk, there is NO EXCUSE for South Carolina.
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Mew
Work hard to keep him there, I’m sure Speaker Mike Madigan will run his daughter against Kirk, otherwise its probably the Mooch.
The Madigans recently irritated the GLAAD crowd by blocking Illinois legislative approval of gay marriage.
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That won’t matter to GLAAD, of course .. they’ve got Stockholm Syndrome so bad they’re speaking Swedish!
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It will, however, potentially endear them to the single-issues/values types ..
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So yeah, keeping Kirk is going to be hard… but hopefully worthwhile.
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So, when is Indiana going to get serious?
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Mew
Hey now, we got serious last year and booted Lugar out, but then Mourdock made his little comment and Donnelly cruised to victory.
All of these scandals go to show that Obama is a creature of Chicago and all the corruption therein. I mean D.C. has always been corrupt but Obama has taken up to a new level. You know before there was a sort of code among crooks. You had to be discreet, not so much in Chicago, and apparently these thugs forgot how to be freaking discreet.