Durbin Gets Shrill on Hardball

Dick Durbin just finished an interview on Hardball, where he angrily chided this "victory lap" Ahmad Chalabi has been taking around Washington this week, while still being under investigation for trading spy secrets to the Iranians.

After yet another excellent David Shuster piece looking at Chalabi's pre-war claims, Durbin came on and you could tell he was really angry. He said "I'm told that when Chalabi's motorcade went past the Justice Department, it sped up." Durbin brought up Chalabi's $330,000/month salary from the Pentagon, the ongoing investigation into his spying practices, how he "bragged" about accomplishing his goal of getting the US into Iraq, no matter how he did it.

Matthews only once tried to throw this back on the Democrats, asking "Shouldn't you have tried to stop his funding?" Durbin rightly said "We never had a vote on it." Durbin was incredulous that Chalabi was being toasted around DC when he lied to the American people, lied to Congress, allegedly fed Iran with information, and all the rest. Plus, as Matthews ominously noted, "he's in line to be the next Prime Minister."

David Frum's now trying to defend hosting Chalabi at the American Enterprise Institute. Please.

Durbin's language was dead-on. Ahmad Chalabi is a con man and a thief, and the American people know it. He is right to demand that Congress questions him on prewar intelligence and passing secrets to the Iranians. This is tough Democrats in action, and Durbin, who voted against the Iraq War, is the right person to do it.