Leaked memo causes furor - Democrats’ Iraq probe is set back as GOP attacks

Hill News ^ | 11/6/03

[areafiftyone]

Senate Democrats were forced on the defensive yesterday after Republicans obtained a leaked memorandum outlining an opposition strategy for criticizing the administration's use of intelligence prior to the invasion of Iraq.

The contents of the memo, first reported late Tuesday by conservative radio and Fox News Channel commentator Sean Hannity, prompted harsh condemnations by Republicans, including members of the Intelligence Committee.

It also prompted calls from both sides of the aisle for further investigation.

Republicans demanded scrutiny of whether Senate rules had been violated by the drafting of the partisan memo, while Democrats demanded a probe of how the document fell into Republican hands.

The development instantly knocked the wind out of intelligence panel Democrats, who in recent weeks have criticized Republicans increasingly boldly for not scrutinizing the Bush administration's handling of intelligence prior to the war.

This strategy memo lays bare what we've started to see for some time: an orchestrated effort by Democrats at a time of war to improperly use an intelligence investigation as a weapon against President Bush, said Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), chairman of the Republican Policy Committee.

The memo was drafted by Democratic staff on the Intelligence Committee and was not circulated or approved by Vice Chairman John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). Hannity attributed the leak to a source on the committee.

Kyl, along with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and committee members Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), took to the chamber's floor yesterday to blast what they called evidence of Democratic efforts to exploit the panel's investigation for partisan political advantage.

Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) weighed in from across the Capitol to accuse Democrats of wanting to play politics with our intelligence agencies, as those agencies fight the war on terror.

Republican Sens. Kyl, Richard Shelby (Ala.), Larry Craig (Idaho), Arlen Specter (Pa.) and Gordon Smith (Ore.) blasted the Democrats over the memo at a press conference yesterday afternoon. They invited Roberts to join them, but he did not show up. This followed an afternoon during which Rockefeller appeared to pull back from his most stringent accusations about how the GOP obtained the memo.

Roberts parallel de-escalation may make it more difficult for Democrats to resume the tough course they have taken against him.

Speaking of the impact on Democratic efforts to probe pre-war decision making, a GOP leadership aide said: This is very damaging to them. Why should the administration cooperate with Democratic demands when the information is going to be used for partisan purposes?

Democratic pressure on Republican members of the Intelligence Committee hit a peak two weeks ago when Democrats including Rockefeller, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (S.D.) and Bob Graham (Fla.), the panel's former chairman, held an open hearing, sponsored by the Democratic Policy Committee, on the intelligence issues.

Afterward, Rockefeller told a press conference that the panel's GOP chairman was shielding the president from scrutiny.

Over the course of less than 24 hours, what Democrats had viewed as an effective line of criticism against the administration became dramatically blunted and their air of indignation had turned to one of conciliation.

I would suggest to my colleagues that there is reason for concern today and it is not for the content of this draft staff memo, Rockefeller said yesterday morning.
It was an internal memo, a draft. At some point, the committee and the senate are going to have to explore the chain of events surrounding this draft memo since it raises serious questions about whether the majority is obtaining unauthorized access to private internal materials of the minority.

Other Democrats rallied behind the charge.

I'm sure Senator Rockefeller doesn't make it lightly, said Daschle spokeswoman Ranit Schmelzer.

However, by yesterday afternoon Rockefeller was trying to patch things up with colleagues on the committee.

I spoke to Pat on the floor and said, We've been saying things over the last 24 hours, and I think it's really important that the committee come first, country come first, post-9-11 come first. The other stuff is nothing compared to that.

Rockefeller said he wanted to appear with Roberts on two television shows they'd been invited on to talk about building bridges between Republicans and Democrats on the panel and coming back together again.

Rockefeller said Roberts agreed wholeheartedly.

Roberts extended the olive branch on the floor of the Senate yesterday when he said, The answer is simple: We go back to work. We have a documents yet to review. We have a handful of documents yet to conduct.

I urge the Democratic members of the committee to disavow this strategy of attack and join with us to work.

[bray]

This has the Wicked Witch of NY's fingerprints all over it. The politics of personal destruction is her M.O.

Pray for GW and The Truth

[Hoboken]

Senator Roberts, being an honorable man and a patriot, understands that it is imperative that members of both parties on the intel committee cooperate. What he doesn't seem to understand is that the rabid partisan jackasses will use his "naivte" as camoflage as they conspire. The discovery of this memo should have triggered OUTRAGE in Senator Roberts, but instead we get more hat in hand pleas for bipartisanship. Sen., you can't continue to wish these abominable acts into the cornfield. (Twilight Zone reference)

[prairiebreeze]

I said this would happen!

Of course. Priorities, doncha know. It's tantamount to the Dims to find out who their leaker is, NOT that the memo was written because that's SOP to them.

We don't have to deal with anybody. We ought to be able to insist on an investigation as to the source of the memo. PS: all roads lead ultimately to Clinturds I believe, via Rockefeller and Turd bin.

Prairie

[prairiebreeze]

Geeze, Roberts didn't even show up?!

He reminds me of a gentle elderly grandpa. If he can't stand the heat or "stand up to" the heat, he better get outta the kitchen.

Prairie

[Judith Anne]

You can email "Senator" Rockefeller

senator@rockefeller.senate.gove

and let him know what you think of this memo of his.

And by the way, you can demand that he resign. He has access to way too much information on that committee, and has the stated intention of using it for political purposes.

That's grounds to demand his resignation.

ROCKEFELLER MUST RESIGN!

[PJ-Comix]

Did anybody see ANYTHING on the lamestream news yesterday about this memo? I watched Petah Jennings and saw NOTHING. However, Petah must have been VERY AWARE of the memo since he led off his broadcast with a story (delivered in urgent tones) about some obscure Lebanese businessman who claims that a bigwig Iraqi was willing to let an American disarmament team into Iraq shortly before the war broke out. This turned out to be a complete NON-STORY (nothing much in the news about this today) but it served as a convenient smokescreen for Petah to use to divert attention away from the memo.

Let's see. Petah reports on a non-story about Iraq and completely ignores a major story concerning the memo. Way to go, Petah!

[HamiltonJay]

Well its now official

NEVER TRUST A DEMOCRAT WITH NATIONAL SECURITY AT ANY LEVEL... PERIOD

[Matchett-PI]

"This strategy memo lays bare what we've started to see for some time: an orchestrated effort by Democrats at a time of war to improperly use an intelligence investigation as a weapon against President Bush, said Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), chairman of the Republican Policy Committee."

"This is the key." ~ jmstein7

Exactly.

1-6-03:

Dems plan to undermine America to beat Bush
CapitolHillBlue ^ | January 6, 2003 | By DOUG THOMPSON
Posted on 01/28/2003 2:07 AM EST by JohnHuang2
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/944219/posts

Democrats plan to undermine public confidence in President George W. Bush by challenging his credibility and raising doubts about America, sources within the party tell Capitol Hill Blue.

A multi-pronged attack against Republicans and the President will focus not only on economic issues, but question American values, raise doubts about how this country is viewed by other nations and question the patriotism of Bush and his party.

The extensive campaign, developed by senior Democratic consultants and party leaders, was launched last week with attacks on the Bush economic plan by Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Richard Gephardt.

In coming weeks, Democratic elected officials will question the President’s intentions on the pending war with Iraq. Writers and broadcasters friendly to the Democratic cause have already been provided talking points suggesting the war is about oil, not terrorism. “The talking points were developed before the end of last year and sent out to operatives and friendly media,” one Democratic consultant confided. “No Democratic member of Congress will question the President’s patriotism openly but we will use the media and other surrogates to raise doubts.”

Capitol Hill Blue obtained a copy of the talking points when the Democratic National Committee sent them to a news outlet recently acquired by CHB’s parent company. The talking points outline a strategy to raise public doubts of the President’s real intentions, including: --Saying the war is about oil and will be fought to benefit oil companies that have long supported Bush and the Republican party;

--Claiming the Bush administration has “manufactured” evidence against Saddam Hussein and used that evidence to encourage Britain and other allies to join the American fight against Iraq;

--Suggesting a wartime economy is the only way the administration can revive the country’s lagging economic situation.

“It is clear that the current approval ratings of the administration are tied directly to strong American feelings toward traditional values,” the talking points say. “To counter this, doubt must be raised as to America’s true position within the world community and the true intent of the Bush administration in waging war.”

Some Democrats admit privately they are uneasy with the party strategy to undermine American values in an attempt to get Bush.

“My boss doesn’t want anything to do with it,” one senior Senate aide told Capitol Hill Blue on Monday. “You don’t undermine this country to win elections.” Others, however, are willing to try anything to put the White House and Congress back under Democratic control. “The real war isn’t in Iraq,” one Democratic consultant said. “It’s right here at home, at the ballot box in 2004.”

Among the other points Democrats hope to make in the coming weeks:

--Both President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are controlled by oil and defense industry special interest groups.

--The war on terrorism is a failure because Osama bin Laden is still at large.

--America is unprepared for another terrorist attack because of White House preoccupation with Iraq. --War will increase the country’s economic woes. --Bush will be forced to raise taxes to finance the war.

“It’s time to take the battle to the people and make them understand just how dangerous George W. Bush’s policies are to the future of America,” the talking points conclude.

Democratic sources say the talking points were developed by Democratic Chairman Terry McAuliffe, former Clinton campaign strategist James Carville, Senate Majority Leader Daschle and former House Democratic Leader Gephardt.

“This is a classic, Jim Carville, scorched earth campaign,” crows one DNC staffer. “Take no prisoners. That’s how you win elections.” Democratic party spokesmen would not return phone calls seeking comment on this report.

© Copyright 2003 Capitol Hill Blue

[HamiltonJay]

Don't know about the national news, but all 3 local broadcasts had stories on it, though more blunted than they should have been. But that's mainly because Spectre was in town and held a last minute press conference in town on the Memo... so they had to cover it.

[Matchett-PI]

"This strategy memo lays bare what we've started to see for some time: an orchestrated effort by Democrats at a time of war to improperly use an intelligence investigation as a weapon against President Bush, said Sen. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), chairman of the Republican Policy Committee."

"This is the key." ~ jmstein7

Exactly.

3-21-03:

Saddemocrats--It's time to rename some Leftist Democrats "Saddemocrats - FrontPageMagazine ^ | 3-21-03 | Lowell Ponte
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/870922/posts

FrontPageMagazine.com | March 21, 2003

WITH WAR ONLY HOURS AWAY, THREE DEMOCRATIC “Progressive Caucus” members of Congress on Wednesday via television hookup addressed the European Union Parliament and shared Left-eyed views with their fellow socialists across the Atlantic.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D.-Ohio) preached that President George W. Bush’s “case for war is a sham” based on “untrue, unfounded and disproven allegations.” This presidential aspirant, whose loony Leftist eccentricities this column recently documented, wants America disarmed and our Department of Defense renamed “the Department of Peace.”

“We [who advocate no war against Saddam Hussein] are severely punished inside the borders of this country through the media,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D.-Ohio) Kaptur has refused to retract or apologize for her recent speech favorably comparing 9-11 mastermind Osama bin Laden to George Washington and America’s other revolutionary founding fathers. Leftist House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-California) refused to punish Kaptur for these pro-bin Laden remarks.

“We have not seen a propaganda campaign in the world like this in about 70 years,” said Rep. Jim McDermott (D.-Washington State) to the European legislators. “This government has controlled the media and it does not allow a voice to be raised.”

McDermott six months ago visited Baghdad, embraced fellow socialist Saddam Hussein, and declared from the Iraqi capital that President George W. Bush was a liar. He received tons of media coverage, both here and abroad.

Accompanying McDermott was Rep. David Bonior (D.-Michigan), who did not seek re-election last November. Paul Sperry of WorldNetDaily.com this week reported that Bonior as a leading congressional Democrat used his influence prior to September 11, 2001, to stifle an FBI investigation into potential Arab terrorists in Detroit, and that Bonior as Democratic Whip in the House of Representatives pocketed thousands of dollars from Arab donors with links to terrorist groups.

Other leading Democrats have been equally eager to support Saddam Hussein by attacking America’s Commander-in-Chief.

Rep. Pete Stark (D.-California) told his and Rep. Pelosi’s local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, that the Bush policy towards Iraq was “extreme terrorism” and that going to war with American weapons would be “a terrorist act.”

At the time of the 1991 Gulf War, Rep. Stark reportedly put special blame for the war on his “Jewish colleagues,” especially then-Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-N.Y.), describing him as “Field Marshall Solarz in the pro-Israel forces.”

For remarks no more anti-Semitic than this, Rep. Jim Moran (D.-Virginia) was recently stripped of his very minor post of party leadership. It might be worth asking Rep. Stark if he now recants his own anti-Semitism, now increasingly fashionable among Left-wing fascists.

“I’m saddened, saddened that this President failed so miserably at diplomacy that we’re now forced to war,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle days before war began, “saddened that we have to give up one life because this President couldn’t create the kind of diplomatic effort that was so critical for our country.”

Sen. Daschle might have been better advised to condemn his Democratic colleagues such as Kucinich, Kaptur, McDermott, Bonior and Stark whose words and actions encouraged Saddam Hussein to believe he had strong political support inside the U.S. Congress.

The defects in Daschle’s reasoning are many. Even Leftist commentators have generally agreed that France and Saddam Hussein are to blame for diplomatic problems, not President Bush, and that a diplomatic success would also have led to war.

But Daschle’s stupidity is exceeded by his hypocrisy, as Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online discovered in a 1998 Daschle speech defending a preemptive strike against Iraq by Democratic President Bill Clinton:

“Look,” said Daschle in 1998, we have exhausted virtually our diplomatic effort to get the Iraqis to comply with their own agreements and with international law. Given that, what other option is there but to force them to do so?…. This is the key question. And the answer is, we don’t have another option. We have got to force them to comply, and we are doing so militarily.”

Playing politics to gain petty partisan advantage is tawdry enough. Playing politics in ways that encourage Saddam Hussein to defy both United Nations demands and an American President’s ultimatum could lead to war and to American soldiers dying – and that is clearly what Mr. Daschle has done. No wonder that so many thousands of South Dakotans call their Senator “Tom Dashole.”

Daschle’s words attacking the Commander-in-Chief come “mighty close” to giving comfort to U.S. enemies,” said House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert.

“I think Senator Daschle clearly articulated the French position…. I, frankly, don’t even think that’s how most Democrats here in the United States Senate see it,” said Senator Rich Santorum (R.-Pennsylvania).

“In expressing his views, Tom Daschle is being patriotic,” said House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi. “The Republican leaders are being partisan.”

In the shell bursts of this conflict, we can see clearly illuminated a large faction of the Democratic Party that shares the French desire to weaken, belittle, damage and perhaps destroy the United States.

This faction deserves a name to distinguish it from the waning number of Democrats of a party founded by Thomas Jefferson who still love America.

Saddemocrats is what I call these clearly anti-American Leftists who attack President Bush and are as eager as the French to keep Ba’athist socialist Saddam Hussein in power.

Some will dismiss them as a fringe, the loony extremist wing found in any political movement, and if we look only at wacko egomaniacs such as Kucinich and McDermott this seems apparent.

But if the Democratic Party is not the Saddemocratic Party, why are its congressional leaders Saddemocrats Nancy Pelosi and Tom Daschle? Why are these reckless extremists in control? And when, for the safety of America, will we see a regime change in the once-honorable party of the donkey?

Mr. Ponte ... is a former Roving Editor for Reader's Digest.

[gathersnomoss]

His name is Rockefellar. Rocky will hold his seat as long as he likes, so don't hold your breath.

[gathersnomoss]

....Zero shame, excellent!

[PJ-Comix]

Don't know about the national news, but all 3 local broadcasts had stories on it, though more blunted than they should have been.

I only checked ABC news and it was truely PATHETIC to watch how Petah Jennings desperately tried to DEFLECT attention away from the memo story by leading off on a COMPLETE NON-STORY about some obscure Lebanese businessman who claims some bigwig Iraqi told him that Iraq was willing to let an American disarmament team into Iraq shortly before the war broke out. YAWN! So Petah breathlessly reports on a complete NON-STORY while IGNORING the memo story. Par for the course for Petah!

[PJ-Comix]

Mr. Ponte ... is a former Roving Editor for Reader's Digest.

I actually knew Lowell Ponte from La-La Land when he was a Santa Monica neighbor of some gal I used to go out with. Nice guy but VERY ECCENTRIC. Then again, who am I to speak? Most likely Ponte thought I was VERY ECCENTRIC.

[Judith Anne]

I don't watch the alphabet nets so I missed all that bleep. But I DID post a thread here calling for Rockefeller to resign.

Anyone can email him at:

senator@rockefeller.senate.gov

and tell him that a so-called "Senator" sitting on the Intel Committee who plans to use information he got there for political advantage in 2004 is next to a traitor and should RESIGN!

[Matchett-PI]

"A draft?!? Right. If people look at the memo closely they'll see that some of the RATS plans had already been implemented."

Exactly see #48 and #50 in this thread.

[Mo1]

Deal .....if we can start a probe into who on the committee wrote the memo.....and what Senators recieved a copy...and who ordered this memo to be written

Hello Ethic Committe .. Care to investigate this one???

[Mo1]

Republican Sens. Kyl, Richard Shelby (Ala.), Larry Craig (Idaho), Arlen Specter (Pa.) and Gordon Smith (Ore.) blasted the Democrats over the memo at a press conference yesterday afternoon. They invited Roberts to join them, but he did not show up

Hmmmm .. Gee I don't remember seeing or hearing about this Press Conference on the news

The media wouldn't trying to hide this .. would they?? /sarcasm>

[Matchett-PI]

BTTT!!!

[Ann Archy]

This needs repeating on every thread....Never....NEVER trust a Democrat with security of our country....NEVER.