Of course, it has political implications, but doesn't every investigation? I'm not sure this is totally out of the committees mandate. For now, I'd say there are bigger fishh to fry.
Where were these crusaders of truth when clintoon was inserting the US into the "war of islamic expansion" in Bosnia-Herzgovenia-Kosovo"?? I remember a clintoon prouncement that our troops would be home from Bosnia by Christmas of 1994 or there abouts. Another clintoon dishonesty of monumental proportions was the claim, approx March 1999, that the Serbs had massacred 200,000 albaniacs in Kosovo and buried them in mass graves. The lie, to justify his "humanitarian" intervention, has since been proved totally false. However no crusade for honesty undertaken by the senate intelligence committee or any other investigative body. To any unbiased outside observer I think the dumbocrat obsession for honesty would appear somewhat "selective" and directed at republicans only.
'Real Feelings'
"The partisan rift over a Senate inquiry into prewar intelligence on Iraq" has "deepened," according to the Associated Press, because of the revelation, which we noted yesterday, of a draft Democratic staff memo outlining ways to use investigation for political gain. Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, the committee's chairman, took to the floor of the Senate yesterday and called the memo "an effort to discredit the committee's work, undermine its conclusions, no matter what those conclusions may be." Fellow Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona said: "I never saw the kind of blatant partisan politics emerge that has apparently emerged as revealed in this memorandum."
The strongest condemnation of the memo, however, comes from a Democrat, Georgia's Sen. Zell Miller, who issued a statement yesterday:
"I have often said that the process in Washington is so politicized and polarized that it can't even be put aside when we're at war. Never has that been proved more true than the highly partisan and perhaps treasonous memo prepared for the Democrats on the Intelligence Committee.
"Of all the committees, this is the one single committee that should unquestionably be above partisan politics. The information it deals with should never, never be distorted, compromised or politicized in any shape, form or fashion. For it involves the lives of our soldiers and our citizens. Its actions should always be above reproach; its words never politicized.
"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.
"Heads should roll!"
Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the committee's ranking Democrat, distanced himself from the memo, saying he hadn't approved it and it hadn't been circulated among the senators on the committee. But he didn't exactly repudiate its contents. "It is disturbing that individuals are seeking to score political points and that a draft paper describing the rights of the minority to push for a full and fair review of these issues is being so grossly mischaracterized to try to deflect attention from the real issue," the AP quotes him as saying.
Adds Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat: "If [the memo] expresses the frustration of many senators on this committee that we have created this firewall to protect the administration, then this memo frankly speaks to real feelings." Those who suspect that Democrats would rather indulge their partisan feelings than seriously tend to matters of national security have certainly had their suspicions confirmed.
One thing we can be certain of: If the document was delivered to the New York Times, CNN, or CBS News, we would still not have any public record of it being published.
They're not responding to anything documented in the memo...they're trying to shift the blame by suggesting "Watergate-style" Republican operatives broke in and stole the memo.
As usual, the bulk of the media is giving them a pass.
Un-frickin-believable.
Think I'll email Pat Roberts and George Allen advising them I'm sending Bush-Cheney a donation but I'm not sending another dime to the NRSC until Senate Republicans start standing up for our country, our military and our president.
Once again, democrat leaders prove they ain't got nothing to offer voters except rancor and divisive bitter partisan politics.