Posted on 07/17/2003 7:40:44 PM PDT by Brian S
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led Senate on Thursday rejected a bid to force the Bush administration to issue its own report on the intelligence it used to justify the war in Iraq, as the Senate pressed to wrap up its bill to fund the Pentagon.
As Democrats ratcheted up attacks on the administration's handling of Iraq, the Senate voted 62-34 to shelve an amendment pushed by Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, to withhold $50 million in intelligence funds until President Bush submits a report. Eleven Democrats voted against it.
Earlier in the day, Durbin said CIA Director George Tenet told the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed-door session that a White House official insisted on including a disputed allegation about Saddam Hussein's push for a nuclear weapon in Bush's State of the Union speech last January.
That drew an immediate rebuke from the White House which characterized Durbin's statement as "nonsense."
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate's second-ranked Republican, said Democrats were using the flap over the discredited claim that Saddam was seeking uranium in Africa "to score political points. They've sacrificed the national interest on the altar of partisan politics."
In debate on the $369 billion bill to fund the Pentagon next fiscal year, Democrats pressed Bush to provide cost estimates for stabilizing Iraq and enlist help from NATO and the United Nations.
Sen. Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat whose son served in the Iraq war, accused Bush of "goading Iraqi guerrilla war fighters to take another shot" at U.S. forces who are facing almost daily casualties.
"Our nation would be better served and the security of our troops would be better served if our president would spend less time trying to look and sound like a grade B movie cowboy" and spend more time getting international help in Iraq, he said.
In votes on Wednesday, Republicans defeated Democratic amendments to force Bush to provide long-term cost estimates for Iraq and impose deadlines to get help from NATO and the United Nations in peacekeeping.
Republicans hoped for a final vote later on Thursday on the defense spending bill, which does not include funds for Iraq. That money is coming from a $62 billion emergency bill Congress passed in April, and Bush is expected to seek another money bill for Iraq next year.
To question the reason why we went to war with Iraq is just plain nonsense. To parse every word of the SOTU and hurt the credibility of our intelligence agencies, the president and the country for political gain is beyond the pale
Heed the warnings of history and shut these people up – stand strong and tall for a real America, one who fights for the freedoms of all people. George Bush is an honest and strong leader, it is only those who lack courage to stand for what is right and are not willing to risk the ultimate to maintain freedom and liberty; who live in their ivory towers or luxurious fiefdoms of the government elite a-la Hillary and her expansive, expensive homes and offices. They don’t want you to have freedom; they want to rule your lives with their agendas of grandeur for themselves and a lot less for you. Stay the course with our President and the War Against Terrorism! George Bush did not lie to the American People and he needs your support.
I seem to remember it was the Clinton administration that did away with intelligence, it got in their way.
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