Republicans want to fire top counter-terrorism adviser who outed them for their own failures

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asserted today on FOX News that President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, a 25-year veteran of the CIA and adviser to Republicans and Democrats alike, “had lost any utility he could have for the President of the United States," because of recent statements he's made about the prosecution of the war on terror and the administration's critics.

"When you impugn people's patriotism and integrity and make statements that compare people going back into the fight in Afghanistan or Yemen or other places, with criminals who go back to a life of crime in the United States, you've lost touch with reality," McCain said, in an appearance on Fox News.

The issue of terrorist recidivism was a very significant problem under the Bush administration. Two weeks ago, Brennan sent a letter to members of Congress, informing them that after a comprehensive records review, it was determined that all the former detainees released or transferred who returned to terrorism after their release did so during the Bush years. 

The Arizona Republican did not expressly call for Brennan's firing, though it was implied in his comments. During an appearance on Fox News the day before Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), McCain’s close friend in the Senate, did in fact call for Brennan’s firing, saying it would be better to have a new person in that job.

The GOP guns clearly are pointed in Brennan's direction, despite the fact that, having worked for five administrations. He is widely regarded as an apolitical figure. Some of his statements that the republicans find so offensive aren't all that controversial as compared to those made by legislators and officials from the Bush administration.

McCain, for example, seemed particularly irked that Brennan would compare recidivism rates for terrorists with those for criminals, when former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did much the same.

Rice, the long-time Bush confidant affirmed, during a 2005 AP interview, that recidivism isn't just a problem at Guantanamo; it is a problem with criminal justice as well.

Instead of working with the Obama administration to resolve these concerns, republicans want kill the messenger in hopes that voters will not find out how inept they are at governing or at protecting Americans.

Republicans just hate it when the facts get in the way of their attempts at revising recent history.