Posted on 07/19/2007 11:55:38 AM PDT by libs_kma
Two Senate Democratic leaders who failed to attend Thursday’s Pentagon teleconference with Gen. David Petraeus said they were unaware that they had been invited and questioned the White House’s use of faxes to notify senators of the high-profile briefing. Both Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Democratic Caucus Secretary Patty Murray (Wash.) indicated they would have made room in their schedules to speak with Petraeus, the chief commander in Baghdad, and Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, if the White House had informed them more urgently.
Durbin said the White House’s communication about upcoming Iraq briefings is “usually very reliable,” but wondered aloud why the invitation to Thursday’s event came through a mass fax rather than staff notification.
“I’m just going to write it off as [due to] poor staff work,” Durbin said. “I’m not going to make it more sinister than that.”
Murray echoed Durbin’s puzzlement: “It was faxed in our public fax [machine], where thousands of constituent faxes are,” she said.
Attendance at Petraeus briefings has sparked political infighting in the past, most notably in April, when House Republicans castigated Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for deciding not to attend a Washington meeting with Petraeus.
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) noted on Thursday that an Aug. 1 Petraeus briefing for senators has long been in the works. Some Democrats described the more sudden joint briefing with Crocker as part of the White House effort to win back senators who are moving closer to public embrace of withdrawal from Iraq.
Several Democrats made it to Thursday morning’s sessions, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.). Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) did not attend in order to chair a Foreign Relations Committee hearing, during which Crocker testified via satellite. Asked later Thursday about the notification process, Biden said his White House invitation likely came through staff.
“I assume I got one,” he said.
This means that they pay just about as much attention to correspondence from constituents as they do to correspondence from the Administration about official war updates.
Very telling, I would say. That’s no way to run a business ... or a political office either.
Why would Patty “Osama Mama” Murry attend anything which might reveal that Saddam was not the great humanitarian she says he was?
Clueless Murray even praised Osama Bin Laden for building roads and schools....gee, what a guy! /s
Projection:
“I’m just going to write it off as [due to] poor staff work,” Durbin said.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Oh gee, I guess the Senators staffs are just as inept as the Senators themselves. Or could it be that they just ignored the faxes so that they could make the news with their hissy fits.
Dem Senators: “The dog ate my fax. I’m really puzzled by the whole thing.”
do we know who attended the meeting?
Apparently Feinstein and some others DID attend the meeting. Which means that the way that the notification was made WAS adequate. Which means that Durbin and Murray are simply looking for another way to harrass Bush, rather than do something responsible, like attend a breifing.
Dem leaders say they were unaware of Petraeus hearing
.
Jon Carry missed intelligence breifings all the time.
The notices sent to Dems should have been in Arabic.
Just more proof that the Rats fear the surge working and winning is within reach.
"LIAR!"
Oh, but your staff had time to send toothbrushes and toothpaste to GOP senators the other night, with an attached note to "help end this war"?
You lying prevaricating ****, Turbin...I wish I were there, to send back your care package, with a month's supply of Preparation H, with a note: "Use as directed by me - shove it."
That's the fax machine that they have mounted over a garbage can that the faxes fall directly into.
The “public fax” just spits them out into the waiting trash can below.
Let me share with you that the Democraps are more afraid of Gen. Petraeus than they are of any other person involved in the war. General Petraeus is winning in the surge. If the word got out that the surge is working, the whole lid would be blown off of the basic Reid/Kennedy/Clinton that the war is lost. The worst possible scenario is for Bush to be proven right that with the right mixture of Leadership and troop levels that the war situation was being reversed and that gains were being made.
I can sense their angst in this scenario playing out. Also, I don’t think they want to tangle with General Petraeus in public Senate hearings. Can you imagine in September the congress is in single digit approval rating and the Iraq war on ascendancy in the public’s eye? All of this going into the2008 campaign season.
Please pass the popcorn.
And the dog ate their homework. Sheesh.
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