Electing Smart People

It seems all you who couldn't stand Republican leadership in Congress went out of your way to elect some not-so-smarties:

Now the five-term Texas Democrat, 62, is facing similar unpleasant surprises about the enemy, this time as the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

That’s because, like a number of his colleagues and top counterterrorism officials that I’ve interviewed over the past several months, Reyes can’t answer some fundamental questions about the powerful forces arrayed against us in the Middle East.

It begs the question, of course: How can the Intelligence Committee do effective oversight of U.S. spy agencies when its leaders don’t know basics about the battlefield?

Sleep well America, knowing that the incoming Chair of the House Intelligence Committee knows less about al-Qaeda than the average blog reader.