Frist Disbands Senate Intel Committee Over Memogate

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has temporarily disbanded the Senate Intelligence Committee until committee Democrats reveal the identity of the author of a memo outlining a their plan to politicize intelligence data in a bid undermine President Bush's reelection.

"The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has been harmed by a blatant partisan attack," the Tennessee Republican said in a floor speech yesterday, concluding that the memo had rendered the committee "incapable of meeting its responsibilities to the United States Senate and to the American people."

"Those responsible for this memo appear to be more focused on winning the White House than they are on winning the war against terror," Frist complained before adding, "There will be no more pulling along and no more useful collaboration on partisan schemes."

Committee Chairman Pat Roberts echoed Frist's decision to shut his committee down, saying, "Unless and until this reprehensible attack plan and strategy to derail the committee's important work is properly addressed, I am afraid that it will be impossible to return to business as usual in the committee."

A committee meeting scheduled for yesterday was canceled, and none has been scheduled for next week, a senior committee staff member told the Washington Post.

Frist also demanded that Democrats implicated in the Memogate scandal deliver "a personal apology" to Sen. Roberts.

Though retiring Georgia Democratic Sen. Zell Miller has called the memo, first leaked to radio host Sean Hannity on Tuesday, "perhaps treasonous," other Democrats circled the wagons on Friday.

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid complained on the Senate floor that the memo had been "pilfered" by Republicans then leaked to the media, saying that act was just as offensive as anything revealed by the controversial document.

Oh yeah.
Treason, and placing politics over soldiers' lives is no worse than stealing a piece of paper revealing the treason.
Right.
Would this MENSA candidate care to expand on that remark?

Well, this MENSA could-be can only point out that this is the same reaction to someone taping a plot to lie in a court case involving the President. That is worse than the President perjuring himself to beat the rap in a sexual harrassment suit (at least in Democriminal minds).

The Oath of Office - United States Senator:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Nov. 5, NewsMax.com: "His comment comes as Hannity, on today’s radio show, said he had been informed by a highly reliable source that despite his disclaimers to the contrary, committee co-chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., approved the drafting of the memo."

From the memo:
"We can pull the trigger on an independent investigation at any time-- but we can only do so once. The best time to do so will probably be next year..."

"Intelligence issues are clearly secondary to the public's concern regarding the insurgency in Iraq. Yet, we have an important role to play in the revealing the misleading -- if not flagrantly dishonest methods and motives -- of the senior administration officials who made the case for a unilateral, preemptive war. The approach outline above seems to offer the best prospect for exposing the administration's dubious motives and methods." http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102258,00.html

Is anybody else getting a sense that our President has just about had his fill of these democrats ..?? I do - and I believe that's why Frist has been unleashed. And why the repubs have also been released to go nuclear regarding the judicial nominations.

Also .. since the person from Rockerfeller's staff, who has already been named as the author of the memo, is a former appointee of the Clinton admin .. that little avenue of info to Hillary needed to be shut off.

The dems are between a rock and hard place. If they apologize, that means they are admitting they knew about the memo and agreed with it. If they don't apologize .. it means they won't acknowledge where it came from or who produced it. ROTFLOL!!!

This is so great .. especially since over in the House, Tom DeLay has stuck it to the dems also!! It's about time these Bush-haters got their come-uppance!!!

Memo Test excerpt:

"We have carefully reviewed our options under the rules and believe we have identified the best approach. Our plan is as follows:

"1) Pull the majority along as far as we can on issues that may lead to major new disclosures regarding improper or questionable conduct by administration officials. We are having some success in that regard.

"For example, in addition to the President's State of the Union speech, the chairman [Sen. Pat Roberts] has agreed to look at the activities of the office of the Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, as well as Secretary Bolton's office at the State Department.

"The fact that the chairman supports our investigations into these offices and cosigns our requests for information is helpful and potentially crucial. We don't know what we will find but our prospects for getting the access we seek is far greater when we have the backing of the majority. [We can verbally mention some of the intriguing leads we are pursuing.]

"2) Assiduously prepare Democratic 'additional views' to attach to any interim or final reports the committee may release. Committee rules provide this opportunity and we intend to take full advantage of it.

"In that regard we may have already compiled all the public statements on Iraq made by senior administration officials. We will identify the most exaggerated claims. We will contrast them with the intelligence estimates that have since been declassified. Our additional views will also, among other things, castigate the majority for seeking to limit the scope of the inquiry.

"The Democrats will then be in a strong position to reopen the question of establishing an Independent Commission [i.e., the Corzine Amendment.]

"3) Prepare to launch an independent investigation when it becomes clear we have exhausted the opportunity to usefully collaborate with the majority. We can pull the trigger on an independent investigation of the administration's use of intelligence at any time. But we can only do so once.

"The best time to do so will probably be next year, either:

"A) After we have already released our additional views on an interim report, thereby providing as many as three opportunities to make our case to the public. Additional views on the interim report (1). The announcement of our independent investigation (2). And (3) additional views on the final investigation. Or:

"B) Once we identify solid leads the majority does not want to pursue, we would attract more coverage and have greater credibility in that context than one in which we simply launch an independent investigation based on principled but vague notions regarding the use of intelligence.

"In the meantime, even without a specifically authorized independent investigation, we continue to act independently when we encounter footdragging on the part of the majority. For example, the FBI Niger investigation was done solely at the request of the vice chairman. We have independently submitted written requests to the DOD and we are preparing further independent requests for information.

"SUMMARY: Intelligence issues are clearly secondary to the public's concern regarding the insurgency in Iraq. Yet we have an important role to play in revealing the misleading, if not flagrantly dishonest, methods and motives of senior administration officials who made the case for unilateral preemptive war.

"The approach outlined above seems to offer the best prospect for exposing the administration's dubious motives." [End of Memo Excerpt.]

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