The Daily Background

I agreee with MSNBC’s First Read blog, this really doesn’t make sense:

The bill also required that the CIA must make reports every 3 months on their progress in the hunt. Why, oh why would Sen. Jim Bunning (R) vote against the amendment that would double the bounty on Osama bin Laden from $25 million to $50 million? The Kentucky conservative was the “1″ in the 87-to-1 vote today on the measure, which was put forward by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D).

Why would he vote against that? It’s not just stupid, it’s also politically stupid and stupidly stupid. The only exlanation Senator Bunning offered was that “Catching Osama bin Laden and other leaders of al Qaeda is something the United States government has already made a top priority. If Senator Dorgan truly supported our efforts to fight al Qaeda he would not support withdrawing from Iraq, a key battleground against al Qaeda and in the War on Terror.”

Also, what is Senator Bunning saying when he says that catching bin Laden has ben made a top priority? Was it a top priority when US soldiers closing in on bin Laden in Tora Bora in Afghanistan were closing in on him in 2001 but were diverted to Iraq, letting him get away?

The Bush administration has concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the battle for Tora Bora late last year and that failure to commit U.S. ground troops to hunt him was its gravest error in the war against al Qaeda, according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge.

Was it aa priority when the CIA quietly closed down their special bin Laden unit in 2005?

The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.
[…]
The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice “dead or alive.”

Or maybe it was a top priority when President Bush told a reporter “You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you.” I get so confused, I really wish the good Senator would explain this to me.

Still, I have this nagging feeling that Sentor Bunning, a former baseball player, doesn’t know very much about priorities. After all, look at what he’s best known for:

In April 2006, he was selected by Time as one of “America’s Five Worst Senators.” The magazine dubbed him The Underperformer for his “lackluster performance”, noting he “shows little interest in policy unless it involves baseball”, and criticized his hostility towards staff and fellow Senators and his “bizarre behavior” during his 2004 campaign.

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog