The full court PR press is on and the NSA stonewall is in place.  The struggle between the Executive and Legislative Branches has begun!

General Hayden, NSA Honcho, visited the National Press Club to brief reporters on the warrantless domestic spying program.  Rumsfeld was there today sewing fear seeds: "...the risks could be greater now because the weapons available are more dangerous. Because (terrorists) lurk in shadows, without visible armies, and are willing to wait long periods between attacks, there is a tendency to underestimate the threat they pose."

Then, there was John Negroponte, General Hayden, CIA Director Porter Goss and other senior intelligence officials who visited the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence today. It was Negroponte's first visit to the Committee since his appointment last April - yes, John Negroponte, the new Intelligence Czar, the Chief Intelligencer, Mr. Top Banana!

And yes, this is the Senate Committee that has oversight responsibility for the entire intelligence community. And yes, Negroponte's tardiness in meeting with his supervisors might be considered a slight - it was meant to be.

Negroponte testified that Al Qaeda is out to get us. Neither he nor Hayden would speak to the specifics of the NSA domestic spying effort but Porter Goss said the public disclosures about the program has caused "very severe damage to our capabilities to carry out our mission."

Goss also noted, "It is my aim, and it is my hope, that we will witness a grand jury investigation with reporters present being asked to reveal who is leaking this information."

Let's call this a PR offensive, hunh? Or maybe, just offensive.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the ranking Committee Democrat, was certainly offended and he called it like he saw it -- Rockefeller suggested that such "leaks" most likely "came from the Executive Branch".

That brought a terse response from FBI Director Robert Mueller, who said, "It's not fair to point a finger as to the responsibility of the leak." Hey, looks like these guys from the Executive Branch came to the Senate with chips on their shoulders.  How can an oversight Committee oversee when the overseen don't want to be oversaw?  Is there anything wrong with this picture?

Rockefeller compared the administration's public disclosures of limited information about the NSA program in the six weeks since it was first disclosed to what he described as a similarly misleading use of intelligence before the war in Iraq: "I am deeply troubled by what I see as the Administration's continued effort to selectively release intelligence information that supports its policy or political agenda while withholding equally pertinent information that does not do that."

Senator Feinstein said the administration had engaged in "consistent stonewalling" to prevent the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees from carrying out their oversight duties under FISA.

Negroponte and the other intelligence officials made clear that the decision to limit briefings on the NSA eavesdropping program to just eight members of Congress — the leaders of the Senate and House and the heads of the Intelligence Committees from both parties — had been made by President Bush and the Vice President.

But none of the Committee Republicans joined the Democrats in this discussion.

In a statement issued later, Pat Roberts (R-KS), Chairman of the Committee, accused Rockefeller and other Democrats of derailing the discussion about security threats with their concerns about the eavesdropping program: "I am concerned that some of my Democrat colleagues used this unique public forum to make clear that they believe the gravest threat we face is not Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, but rather the president of the United States."

O-kay! That's how they're going to frame it: "Do you want to be secure in your home, on the telephone, at your computer, OR in your country?" In a democracy, I'd expect both, but, it appears that's not going to be an option.

While the Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a public hearing to begin on Monday to explore the legal issues surrounding the NSA domestic spying program, the entire Senate Intelligence Committee, after a 4 hour hearing today, still has not been briefed on the program as required by law.

Have I missed something?  Are we still a nation of laws or has that principle been repealed?