D.C. Shuffle - The Wit and Wisdom of Pete Hoekstra

"If Harry Reid believes that this war is lost, where is his plan to win this war?" demanded Hoekstra, according to the New York Times.

Read that again. Why would Hoekstra conclude that someone who publicly insists victory is unattainable must possess a plan to attain victory? Hard to say, but it's not the first time Hoekstra has deployed questionable logic in service of his aims ...

"Being a representative has never been my decision. The only thing I do is decide whether I'm going to put my name on the ballot. You guys decide whether I'm actually going to have the opportunity to serve."—Hoekstra weaseling out of his pledge to serve no more than 12 years in Congress, Associated Press, Dec. 16, 2002

"These weapons continue to pose a threat to our troops. They continue to pose a threat to the people in Iraq. And, perhaps, if these weapons were ever transported somewhere else, they would pose a threat to citizens of other countries."—Hoekstra on the discovery of chemical weapons in Iraq on Fox News, June 22, 2006. The old, neglected weapons in question had already been examined and dismissed as essentially harmless by the CIA's Iraq Survey Group

"The sad reality is that the New York Times has done far more damage to U.S. national security by the disclosure of vital, classified, intelligence programs than is likely to be caused by the inadvertent disclosure of decades-old information that had already been in the hands of Saddam's regime."—Hoekstra, in a statement, after the Times pointed out that a website he had helped create featured documents that could be helpful to terrorists looking to build nuclear weapons. Hoekstra also said he was "pleased that the document release program continues to stimulate public discussion of these issues."

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