James T. Walsh was one Republican who questioned the value of the session. “What we heard was marginally classified,” he said. “The really secret stuff, we couldn’t talk about.”

“We saved him,” one said. “He probably would have been disciplined.”

From the headlines:

They discussed his reputation as a "difficult" man who sometimes asked "to do things you might not think were safe."

"I mean, it’s just kind of like ... whatever ... I’m here for a purpose. I know what my purpose is. I am not a ... moron, you know what I mean."

From the archive:

Is more what we really need?

In my opinion not.

But more listening is what the NSA knows how to organize, more is what Congress is ready to support and fund, more is what the President wants, and more is what we are going to get.

To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

Outsiders sometimes find it tempting to dismiss such wheel-spinning as bureaucratic silliness, but I believe that the Judiciary Committee will find, if it is willing to persist, that within the large pointless program there exists a small, sharply focused program that delivers something the White House really wants. This it will never confess willingly.

Secret session 'was a total waste of time', says Congressman