Promises Made; Promises Broken

It didn't take long for Congressional Democrats to break their promise to institute all of the 9/11 Commission reform recommendations.

It was a solemn pledge, repeated by Democratic leaders and candidates over and over: If elected to the majority in Congress, Democrats would implement all of the recommendations of the bipartisan commission that examined the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

But with control of Congress now secured, Democratic leaders have decided for now against implementing the one measure that would affect them most directly: a wholesale reorganization of Congress to improve oversight and funding of the nation's intelligence agencies. Instead, Democratic leaders may create a panel to look at the issue and produce recommendations, according to congressional aides and lawmakers.

Because plans for implementing the commission's recommendations are still fluid, Democratic officials would not speak for the record. But aides on the House and Senate appropriations, armed services and intelligence committees confirmed this week that a reorganization of Congress would not be part of the package of homeland-security changes up for passage in the "first 100 hours" of the Democratic Congress.

So, what exactly is more important than national defense to be dealt with in the first 100 hours? Raising the minimum wage? Check. Launching investigations on the Administration? Check. Improving national security by streamlining and rejiggering how Congress appropriates money for defense and intel... not a chance.

There's too much money at stake that needs to be provided for reform that includes clear oversight. Both parties have no problem with the way things currently stand because everyone benefits monetarily. Too bad national security suffers.

Again, we see bureaucratic politics trumping national security. It happened when the Administration and Congress agreed to create DHS, which established yet another bureaucracy that can muck things up and it happened with the establishment of another intel czar position that adds another layer of bureaucracy when eliminating those layers of bureacuracy would actually make intel gathering and analysis more nimble and responsive to threats.

The government response to threats? Create yet more bureacracies. This does not improve national security - only the job security of those inside the Beltway.

Democrats who claimed that they were going to clean house have done anything but, but that's no different than the GOPers who refused to clean up the mess either.