About ten days before the United States Senate voted to authorize the war in Iraq, the intelligence community released a 90 page, classified version of The National Intelligence Estimate to every member of the Senate. Only six of the 100 senators read the Estimate. And the press is now going nuts about the other 94 senators' failure to read it.
Doesn't the press know that senators don't read much of anything these days?
The members of the most exclusive club on the face of the planet are busy.
They don't read the bills on which they are required to vote. They don't read detailed news reports. They don't read the latest political books or the latest scholarly journals.
So how is it that they stay in the proverbial loop? How do they remain in touch with what is happening in the world?
They're briefed. Each senator sits through hours upon hours of briefings every day. The briefings cover every topic imaginable: poll data; fundraising; particular pieces of legislation; planning trips to their home districts; coordinating policies with other branches of government; oversight; committee assignments; and, yes, national security.
And guess what. The senators were briefed on the Iraq intelligence prior to the vote for the war. Should they be castigated because they followed standard procedure? Should they be expected to read some documents but not others? It's just not feasible to expect them to read (or understand) every issue presented to them.
The press is suggesting that the Senate acted casually in authorizing the war. If that's the line they want to tow, they better come up with more than "the senators didn't read enough intelligence."
Because right now they're just Monday morning quarterbacking in the worst way imaginable.
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