Editorial: Lack of intelligence

Tuesday, July 17, 2007 | 7:18 a.m.

The House Intelligence Committee was deeply entangled in the Randy "Duke" Cunningham bribery scandal, according to a report commissioned by the committee, apparently because Republican leadership was asleep at the switch.

A story in Monday's edition of the Los Angeles Times detailed how the former Republican congressman from California bullied staff members on the Intelligence Committee, which he sat on, to direct millions of taxpayer dollars to people bribing him. The Times, which obtained a declassified copy of the committee report, noted that one committee aide, a former CIA caseworker, told senior staff members that one contractor close to Cunningham was unqualified for the work, yet the contractor still received millions.

The committee did little, if anything, to stop Cunningham despite such objections.

The Times quotes a person close to former committee Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla., who said Goss was concerned about Cunningham becoming overly partisan for a nonpartisan committee. What Goss did or didn't do was not covered in the report because committee members limited the scope of the investigation. The report's principal author told the Times his marching orders "did not include the culpability or potential involvement of other members."

The effort to avoid scrutiny has apparently become a bipartisan issue, as the committee has continued to refuse to release the report in any form. Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said the Democrats were concerned about making public a report that criticized staff members.

One congressional official, whom the Times did not name, told the newspaper that committee members oppose releasing the report because, "you read this and the natural question is: 'Did you know this, and what did you do about it?' I don't think any members wanted that scrutiny."

That is wrong, and the public deserves better. The current House leadership should demand a full and open accounting of how the corrupt congressman was allowed to commit his crimes and why Republican leadership let it happen.