So, it was Jay Rockefeller (and not Dick Cheney) who sent Joseph C. Wilson IV on his mission to Niamey? Was this, indeed, a partisan set-up from the very outset?
Would explain a lot...
W. Va. Senator John D. Rockefeller, Democratic Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, someone who is absolutely in a position to know the truth about the matter, when asked on Fox News Sunday June 22, 2003, whether he'd heard any evidence to suggest President Bush lied regarding Iraqi WMD intelligence reports said, "No, I have not."
When asked why John Kerry was intimating Bush had lied, Rockefeller basically said, "Kerry is running for president. His agenda is not the same as mine."
This might suggest that Jay was stupid for letting himself appear to change his views so dramatically later.
It's my impression that his response at that time on FNS was genuine, but Democrats came down hard on him quickly thereafter for being so out of sync with their leaders' plans. I think, therefore, Jay doesn't really run that show.
I wouldn't be at all surprised that it's been a Mellon-via-BillyJeff/McAwful run show.
The salient point is probably that Rockefeller's signature alone has been doing a lot of requesting in the recent past, where before that, requests of the executive branch came under the signatures of both Chairman and Vice-Chairman.
"Aides to Rockefeller" as instigators/authors doesn't pass my smell test. He's allowed his office and seat to become the nexus of the partisanship and treason, and that's why the real kids in charge probably love the diversion.
HF