There are so many angles to this political storyline it’s almost impossible to encapsulate them.  Today a Politico article reveals the John McCain/Lindsey Graham push to create an international crisis with Russia has found push-back from an unlikely source, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.

(Politico) John McCain and Lindsey Graham are backing off of their push for a select committee on cybersecurity after Russian interference in the election, bowing to the political reality that the Senate Republican Conference largely does not back their idea.

[…] “We’re just going to move with the individual committees and see how that works. If it doesn’t work, we’ll regroup,” [Lindsey] Graham said in an interview.

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Checks and Balances…

One of the least understood aspects of congressional oversight is the elite group of elected politicians who are charged with congressional oversight over all intelligence activity. This highly important oversight group is called the Intelligence “Gang of Eight”.
The Gang of Eight are briefed on every covert operation that our various intelligence agencies carry out. They are directly responsible for oversight of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
The Go8 are responsible for overseeing all executive office policy as it relates to intelligence gathering and corresponding activity.  In short these eight elected representatives are in charge of all oversight of all U.S. intelligence operations, open and covert.  The incoming 2017 Gang of Eight is:

A position within the Gang of Eight comes as a result of holding one of the following eight positions: 1. The Speaker of the House, 2. The Minority Leader of the House, 3. the Majority Leader of the Senate, 4. the Minority Leader of the Senate, 5. the Chairperson of the House Permanent Committee on Intelligence, 6. the minority leader from the same committee; 7. The Chairperson of the Senate Intelligence Committee and 8. the minority leader of the same committee.
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It is remarkable how disingenuous, and hypocritical, partisan democrats (and media) become with the issue of manipulation and intents of CIA Chief John Brennan…

Everyone reading here is old enough to remember Democrat Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Diane Feinstein, accusing Brennan of lying to her and congress; and worse yet, accusing Brennan of illegally hacking into, and spying on, her staff and congressional oversight personnel. –SEE HERE–
Now, however, all of a sudden, John Brennan is the bastion of intelligence integrity…. Ridiculous.
Thankfully, not everyone has forgotten.  Representative Peter King again calls out CIA Head Brennan, and better still – says Brennan should be investigated.

“It seems like to me — there should be an investigation what the Russians did but also an investigation of John Brennan and the hit job he seems to be orchestrating against the president-elect.”

Reince Priebus appears on Fox News Sunday for an interview with Chris Wallace. Unfortunately Reince does not call CIA Director John Brennan a liar. He should. Both Brennan and James Clapper (DNI) are political operatives.
The Trump Team should consider broadcasting their own round table “Sunday Talk” discussion, via RSBN or other, from Trump Tower.  Bring in a guest like Sharyl Attkisson (or other) weekly, put it on YouTube/Facebook and it will have multiple benefits.

Against the backdrop of the last desperate gasps from a highly politicized Obama intel community (the black hats) appearing amid the media, President-elect Donald Trump continues the assembly of the white hat national security apparatus…

(New York, NY) — President-elect Donald J. Trump today announced his selection of Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, USA (Ret.) as Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary of the National Security Council and Dr. Monica Crowley as Senior Director of Strategic Communications for the National Security Council.

“The United States is an exceptional country and these are two exceptional individuals who have agreed to fulfill the President-elect’s pledge of putting America first once again,” said Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, USA (Ret.), National Security Advisor-designate. “I am honored to have General Kellogg and Dr. Crowley on the National Security Council team.”

“General Kellogg and Dr. Crowley are two outstanding individuals whose decades of combined experience and unique skill sets will be invaluable to advance the Trump Administration’s agenda to protect our great nation and advance U.S. interests throughout the world,” said Deputy National Security Advisor-designate KT McFarland. “I am so pleased that they will be joining our growing team at the National Security Council.”

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Yup.  Despite his semi-frequent tendency to be an annoying GOPe type, representative Peter King is correct on this one:
The John Brennan CIA claim’s are without evidence or merit and being pushed by the CIA and DNI purely for political purposes.  Hence Clapper and Brennan’s refusal to present themselves before congress for scrutiny:

It’s been more than a few months since we first began discussing the obvious internal conflict between White Hats and Black Hats within the Obama intelligence and national security agencies. Today, we see exactly how bad the fracture has become.
As further evidence of the politicization of the CIA (Central Intelligence), headed by John Brennan; and DNI (Director of National Intelligence) James Clapper, the agencies are refusing to brief congress on their claim the “Russians Hacked the U.S. Election”.

On Monday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes sent a letter to DNI James Clapper requesting the director immediately brief congress (Friday, December 16th).  Both Clapper  and Brennan are now refusing to explain their public claims.
On November 17th Director Clapper told congress there was no basis to identify Russia’s involvement in the DNC and Podesta email leaks release by WikiLeaks in the run up to the election.
However, last week the Washington Post and New York Times claimed officials within the DNI and CIA held proof of Russia hacking the election.
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The concentric circles of Team Clinton sycophants can always be counted on to use every available avenue to avoid the reality of their own irrelevance.  The latest exhibition comes today from Paul Begala, Mike Morell, and the Huffington Post trying to push the Russian Election Conspiracy Narrative.
You may have seen various MSM outlets pushing a storyline about a former CIA Director calling Russian interference into the 2016 election: “the political equivalent of 9-11“, or a similar headline.

The quote comes from an interview given by former “interim” CIA Head Mike Morell, and as you can see above, it was quickly dispatched by noted Clinton political operative Paul Begala.
However, what is intentionally not noted is the actual context of the quote – and, just like the obtuse Washington Post article the statement is built upon, the Morell deniability built into his statement.  Going directly to the original source transcript (emphasis mine, IC = Intelligence Community):
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The Sunday Talk Shows are filled with various left-wing punditry using two media reports from the Washington Post and New York Times claiming anonymous, albeit transparently political, “intelligence officials” who state: the Russian government “hacked the U.S. election“.
First, the media’s choice of wording is critical within both reports.
It is impossible to “hack an election“.  What was hacked was the DNC email system, and John Podesta’s email.  WikiLeaks published the content of both “hacks”.
Additionally, WikiLeaks has denied the source of the information was a foreign government.
Both The Washington Post and New York Times, simultaneously, published articles on Friday claiming anonymous sources within the CIA (note: intensely political CIA Chief John Brennan in charge) point to the Russian government as the originators of the hacking.   However, both articles are written with very obtuse and non specific language intended to cover over the fact these reports are not actually stating the official intelligence community are making these specific claims.
All other media outlets subsequently take this illogically based presentation and spin their coverage whereby the “DNC hacked” becomes “the election hacked“.
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President-elect Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway appears on CBS morning show to be interviewed by one of Paul Ryan’s BFF’s, John Dickerson…. about, wait for it… Yeah, muh Russians.
Conway does a great job dealing with the insufferable moonbattery: