We're not in Kansas, anymore.

Today, King George W was speaking at Kansas State University. Here’s my favorite sound-byte:

You know, it’s amazing that people say to me, you know, that he was just breaking the law. If I wanted to break the law, why was I briefing Congress? Heh, heh.

What's wrong with that? I mean, you know, other than the, you know, syntax.

As I reported here the Congressional Research Service issued an opinion that the Bush administration appears to have violated the National Security Act by not keeping all members of the House and Senate intelligence committees "fully and currently informed" of the domestic spying program.

You can read the entire report here.

The Bushies were limiting the briefings about a warrantless domestic eavesdropping program to the so-called Gang of Eight. (i.e. Senate Majority Leader, the Senate Minority Leader, the Speaker of the House, the House Minority Leader and the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees.) More importantly, they weren't giving the Gang of Eight what they need to make heads nor tails of it.

May I have Exhibit A, marked and moved into evidence? That would be the handwritten letter of Senator Jay Rockefeller, which you can see here. Here's a quote:

Without more information and the ability to draw on any independent legal or technical expertise, I simply cannot satisfy lingering concerns raised by the briefing we received.

At least they were briefing someone. But then again, the people being briefed were not even allowed to share the information with fellow members of the committee.

Sure, we thought the whole briefing thing was a huge cover-your-ass exercise. That was before the Chimp-in-chief spoke to his fan-club in Kansas. Now we know.

“… and tell ’em Big Mitch sent ya!”