Republicans were up in arms last week -- and rightly so -- over the outrageous accusation by John Brennan, President Obama's top anti-terrorism advisor, that his critics "only serve the goals of al Qaeda."Sen. Christopher Bond (R-Mo.), vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said Brennan "needs to go" because he's no longer "credible" on security matters.
That's putting it mildly.
Indeed, there are several reasons -- apart from his shamefully partisan name-calling -- to question Brennan's effectiveness.
Start with the near-tragedy of the Christmas would-be airline bomber -- who was foiled only by alert passengers: Brennan has admitted that the governemnt failed to make use of available intelligence to prevent this attack.
Add the absurd decision to Mirandize the terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and send him to the civilian criminal-justice system -- rather than treating him like the enemy combatant that he is.
Now, a lot of people -- and not just Republicans -- have attacked the administration for these policy errors and others.
Brennan has a right to respond, of course. He did so -- in a published newspaper column that's so far over the top that it should be the last straw.
It is, as House Minority Leader John Boehner said, "a cheap, irresponsible political smear that doesn't help keep the American people safe."
And coming after seven years of the unconscionable abuse that Democrats -- including Obama -- heaped on then-President George Bush's anti-terrorism policies, Brennan's piece is particularly unseemly.
Brennan himself termed Bush's policies "a recruitment bonanza for terrorists." Unlike Bush, Brennan promised, Obama would not "validate al Qaeda's twisted worldview."
Now, instead of an independent, nonpartisan intelligence official, Brennan has turned into what Bond correctly labels "a mouthpiece for the political arm" of the White House.
That kind of irresponsibility is not just unseemly, it's potentially dangerous.
Brennan needs to go. Now.