Posted on 03/13/2002 2:13:29 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) suggested Tuesday that the reason the White House has declined to brief Congress on the war effort as often as Senate Plurality Leader Tom Daschle would like is because some of Daschle's colleagues are a security risk.
"I'd like to remind you that at the beginning of this whole thing there were leaks from Congress that could have been very damaging to our efforts," McCain told radio talker Don Imus.
The Arizona Republican made no mention of Daschle's pre 9/11 comments, when the South Dakota Democrat admitted that a number of congressmen he knew were national security risks.
Responding to a question from NBC's Tim Russert in July about whether scandal-scarred Congressman Gary Condit was a national security risk because he was vulnerable to blackmail, Daschle explained, "There are probably others that are subject to blackmail as well."
Then there's key Daschle ally Vermont Sen. Pat Leahy, who had to resign as vice chairman from the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1987 after confessing that he leaked classified material about the Iran Contra scandal to a reporter.
"The Congress does have the right to ask questions and needs to be consulted," McCain told Imus. "But it depends on how those questions are asked, in many respects."
The Arizona Republican predicted that Daschle and the Bush administration would come to terms on an arrangement to share classified material with congressional leaders only.
Who cares what Dashole wants?
"I mean, are you - seriously -- you're trying to destroy one of the great Washington institutions? (Laughter.) It is a disease in this town. It seems that there are some people who simply have a compulsion to seem important, so they take classified information which can damage U.S. national security and give it to people who aren't cleared for it. And responsible people in any country have a minimum of high regard for people who do that. I think by definition when a document is classified, it's classified because its availability to people who are not cleared for classified information would, in fact, damage national security. That is why the classification is put on it. "
Sad sad comentary on our congress.
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