Secretary of State Clinton says that the Republican budget would hurt national security.

Maybe. But you know what also hurts national security?

How about an intelligence director that thinks the Muslim Brotherhood is a secular institution that has rejected violence? Ask the Sudanese if they agree. That hurts national security.

Or how about a State Department that completely misread and misunderstood the Egyptian protests, first supporting the unpopular president, then urging him to resign, and then finally saying whatever he wants to do is fine with us? That hurts national security.

And what of a CIA director who notified the world that the same unpopular Egyptian president was stepping down from power—based on a new feed he thought he read, and that the CIA was pretty much as surprised as anyone else when he didn’t step down? That hurts national security, too.

Consider an executive branch decision to trade Britain’s defense secrets in exchange for a little Russian quiet on a missile defense treaty.

Frankly, the last two weeks have demonstrated that, perhaps, we can do without Madame Secretary’s sort of security for a while.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.