Dumb Ideas, Part 1,000,000

This has to be one of the dumbest ideas ever to be uttered by a United States Senator (and they constantly say stupid things) (via WaPost):

In one of the more unusual proposals to emerge in the Senate debate on Iraq withdrawal, Sen. Mark Pryor wants to keep any plans for bringing troops home a secret.

The Arkansas Democrat is a key holdout on his party's proposal to approve $122 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while setting a goal of March 31, 2008, for winding up military operations in Iraq. Unlike the plan's Republican opponents, Pryor wants a withdrawal deadline of some kind. He just doesn't want anyone outside the White House, Congress and the Iraqi government to know what it is.

The length of time a secret will stay secret is inversely proportional to the number of people who know it. So let us do some math here:

1 President, 1 Vice President, 1 chief of staff, 1 Sec Def and probably 5 other senior officials and about 300 civilian and military staff in the White House and Pentagon (conservative estimate)

Total so far (309)

535 Senators and Members of Congress and 5 Delegates (assuming they are told)

Total So far (849)

At lest one, probably as many as 5 congressional staffers per Member (between 540 and 2700)

Total so far (as little as 1389 and as much as 3549).

So the life expectancy of that secret is about 3 seconds in Washington. At that point why just invite reporters into the briefing!!!

That doesn't even count the Iraqi government and their porous security arrangements.