[Howlin]

Oh, right; they're not acting for Biden and Dodd.

Look at this:

From 2001:


Appoint Otto Reich



As the following editorial published in the Wall Street Journal on 13 December 2001 makes clear, the only reason Amb. Reich has not been on duty before now is because of an ideological vendetta waged against him by Senator Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Western Hemisphere Affairs Subcommittee. Even as ominous economic, political and/or strategic developments in Latin American nations like Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru have demanded expert and competent leadership from the U.S. government, Sen. Dodd has blocked the Reich nomination. Worse yet, he has maliciously sullied the name of the man President Bush knows can provide such leadership while denying Amb. Reich a hearing in which to rebut false charges. The Senator's motivation is transparent: He fears such a hearing would demonstrate to the world that it is Chris Dodd's deplorable record on hemispheric affairs -- not Otto Reich's estimable one -- that should be subjected to critical reviews.

Now that Sen. Dodd and his colleagues have finally left town, Mr. Bush should exercise his constitutional prerogative to make a recess appointment for Ambassador Reich to his State Department post. By so doing, he can simultaneously end a travesty of congressional abuse of power and give the Nation a man whose talents and abilities are more needed with every passing day.


http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:n9z4FDKGgskJ:www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/index.jsp%3Fsection%3Dpapers%26code%3D01-F_86+Janice+O%27Connell+Chris+dodd&hl=en

She demanded that his statement that it was HE who wanted the guy fired be removed from the record!

And he said it was Biden and Dodd's STAFF that is doing all the leaking and smearing!

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Melody Townsel should not have been allowed to have an interview with committee staff. She needs to go under oath in public under penalty of perjury. Lugar needs to grow a pair. If people want to throw mud - they're welcome to do it - but if they throw falsehoods under oath - they're also welcome to a perjury prosecution. Let's quit playing games.

[CyberAnt]

This was what FOX was talking about.

[piasa]

Iran's had very good relations with Cuba. Also remember Fidel's comment at Tehran University where he said before 911 that the US was weak and together, Cuba & Iran could topple the US.

Tehran, Jan 24 [2004] - Senior US senator Joseph Biden criticized the American government's policies on Iran during a meeting with Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi on the fringes of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, foreign ministry said on Saturday. The ranking Democrat on the senate Foreign Relations Committee from Delaware, "stressed the importance of Iran and the role which it can play in the sensitive and volatile region" in the Middle East. Joseph Biden told the Iranian foreign minister that he hoped the existing problems between the Islamic Republic of Iran and America would be removed someday.
Kharrazi had a 90-minute meeting with Biden in a rare high-level contact between Tehran and Washington, which have held no official relations since the 1979 Islamic revolution, in full view of reporters in a lounge at the World Economic Forum. ------- "US senator slams anti-Iran policies," IRIB News, 2004/01/24