We knew "something else was up" when Congress spent $621 million in taxpayer funds to construct the new underground Capitol Visitor Center. (Oh, you hadn't heard about that? Yup. $621 million.)
Of course Sen. Harry Reid claimed it was necessary to bury this monstrous, underground Versailles of a waiting room because the tourists "smell" when they have to wait outside. But we all know that Harry Reid only speaks in lies, and he's not even good at it.
What is the secret meaning of it all?
After several strange disturbances at the CVC Thursday -- two of them, which must be connected -- we might be somewhat closer to the truth.
Bet you didn't know this little factotum, did you: housed somewhere in the new CVC is ... the meeting room for House Intelligence Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations! And today it held secret hearings, to discuss vulgar things. Allow The Hill to dim the lights...
In the bowels of the Capitol Visitor Center, members of the panel gathered behind locked doors on Thursday morning to begin a series of hearings on the interrogation of terrorism suspects.
So why do we know about these secret meetings in secret chambers about secret information, in the new tourism dungeon? Because a bunch of Republicans *discussed the proceedings on-the-record* afterwards, and then the Democrats got furious, and they all went on Hardball and yelled at each other, etc.
But what happened once the secret chamber's location was revealed in the news? Oh, a massive flood is all, just an "accident," no one trying to sabotage the Intelligence Committee.
A broken storm drain flooded a hallway inside the new $621 million visitor center at the Capitol late yesterday, officials said... "Even new equipment fails. We've had a lot of rain. Sometimes these things happen," [the Architect of the Capitol's spokeswoman Eva] Malecki said.
THESE THINGS NEVER "JUST" HAPPEN, maybe.
(But all weak conspiratorial joking aside, way to buy a decent drainage system with your $621 million budget, jackaloons.)
Jim Newell writes for Wonkette and IvyGate.
