Failing to do the honorable thing -- For lying to Congress, James Clapper should resign -- By David Keene, The Washington Times

It was last March when the country's director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper, appeared before a Senate committee, and with the cameras rolling, took an oath to tell the truth, then hunched over, scratched his brow and proceeded to lie. It came in response to a direct question from Sen. Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat. In the days that followed, Mr. Clapper offered an explanation to NBC's Andrea Mitchell, arguing that he had, in essence, been blindsided by a confusing question and had answered it as best he could under the circumstances. He gave, he said, "the least untruthful" answer that he could.

Mr. Wyden, a longtime member of the Intelligence Committee, made it clear following the interview that he had not blindsided Mr. Clapper. On June 11, Mr. Wyden wrote, "So that he would be prepared to answer, I sent the question to Director Clapper's office a day in advance. After the testimony was over, my staff and I gave his office a chance to amend his answer." Needless to say, he didn't.

Last week, his remarks and performance came back to bite him as Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican, called for Mr. Clapper's resignation and insisted that he should be prosecuted for perjury. Mr. Clapper and his friends in the media and the Obama administration had no doubt thought he'd gotten away with what Mr. Sensenbrenner is now insisting was a criminal act, but the revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden proved without much room for doubt that he was, in fact, lying back in March. Mr. Sensenbrenner, who has been outraged by the way the National Security Agency and the administration have expanded the meaning of language in the USA Patriot Act that he drafted, wants him to pay.

It's worth taking a minute to go back to that hearing, in which Mr. Wyden asked Mr. Clapper very specifically, "Does the National Security Agency collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" Mr. Clapper furrowed his brow, scratched his head and said, "No sir, it does not."

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