alk show host Sean Hannity has exposed a Democrat conspiracy to undermine Bush's war effort by leaking classified information.
An incriminating memo suggests that Democratic members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence were planning to release classified data at a strategically-advantageous moment during next year's presidential campaign. The leak would be aimed at undermining Americans' will to fight by accusing the Bush White House of invading Iraq without just cause.
Rockefeller Connection
Democratic Senator John D. ("Jay") Rockefeller of West Virginia -- co-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee -- appears to have played a key role in the plot. An outline of the strategy appears on a memo written by one of Senator Rockefeller's staffers. Rockefeller has long been a vocal critic of Bush's War on Terror.
An unidentified source leaked the Rockefeller memo to talk show host Sean Hannity, who read it on-air to his national radio audience on Tuesday. Go here for a full transcript of the memo.
Rockefeller admits that he instructed his staff to write the memo, but says he never approved it for distribution .
The Senate Intelligence Committee is currently investigating the Bush Administration's case for war on Iraq. According to Republican Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas -- who is chairman of the Intelligence Committee -- the Rockefeller memo outlines a plan to, "discredit the committee's work and undermine its conclusions ... before those conclusions are even reached."
The memo urges Democrat committee members to make a show of cooperating with their Republican colleagues up to a certain point, then "pull the trigger" on the investigation during the 2004 presidential campaign, publicly accusing the White House of "dubious" and "dishonest" motives for going to war and launching their own separate investigation.
"Perhaps Treasonous"
Democrat Senator Zell Miller of Georgia issued a statement calling the Rockefeller memo "perhaps treasonous."
"If what has happened here is not treason, it is its first cousin. The ones responsible - be they staff or elected or both - should be dealt with quickly and severely sending a lesson to all that this kind of action will not be tolerated, ignored or excused," said Miller.
A Washington Times editorial calls the plan a flagrant "abuse of power" and a betrayal of "custodial responsibility over classified information" on the part of the U.S. Congress. The incident "warns U.S. intelligence agencies that there are security risks in providing information to Congress," says the Washington Times.
Republicans Befuddled, Impotent
Incredibly, Senator Pat Roberts has failed to call for an investigation. Instead he urges his Democrat colleagues to simply "disavow" their scheme, like gentlemen, and get on with the "bipartisan" work of the Senate Intelligence committee!
"[T]he biggest thing we ought to do is build a bridge back to a bipartisan compromise so we can go ahead with our work," Roberts told an incredulous Sean Hannity on Tuesday night. "...We are asking our colleagues across the aisle to completely disavow this report or this attack plan. Somehow build a bridge back to some kind of bipartisan coalition...
"[I]t's my responsibility to try to work with my colleagues across the aisle to make the Intelligence Committee what it's supposed to be... I think we've got to get past this draft memo and get on to the business, again, of doing our oversight responsibility, which we have to do in the interest of our national security."
Sounds like Senator Roberts has been gelded. Shades of File-gate. Does Hillary have some sort of dirt on Roberts from his FBI background file?