<font size=5>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! -- Senator Zell Miller
The Select Committee on Intelligence was established to be nonpartisan in nature, in which Congress could perform critical oversight of the intelligence activities of the United States. This nonpartisan environment was, and is, a crucial feature. -- Senator Saxby Chambliss.
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. -- Senator Jon Kyl
The sequence of steps proposed in this partisan battle plan for the committee itself is without question intended to sow doubt, to abuse the fairness of the committee chairman, Senator Pat Roberts, to undermine the standing of the Commander in Chief at a time of war, and to launch a partisan investigation through next year to continue into the elections. -- Senator Bill Frist
<font size=3>
Doesn't the minority have a right, in the secret confines of the Intelligence Committee room, to have pieces of paper there that aren't going to be pilfered by the majority? -- Senator Harry Reid
Some people on the other side have said this is just an options memo tossed up for review. I have been around here for a few years, and a staff person on his or her own doesn't write a memo saying: We have carefully reviewed our options under the rules and we believe we have identified the best approach. Our plan is as follows. -- Senator Kit Bond
Our committee staff of the Select Committee on Intelligence has the complete knowledge of the most significant, serious secrets of this country. They have to be above reproach. -- Senator Jon Kyl
I was stunned by this memo, shocked by this memo. We have a 30- year history in the Intelligence Committee of nonpartisan activity, dating clear back from the Frank Church days. And what this memo has done is really poisoned the well. -- Senator Pat Roberts
Has it been created, or is it really a rift? There are created rifts and there are rifts, and I'm not sure which category this falls into. -- Senator Jay Rockefeller
What has occurred in the Intelligence Committee was not a simple misunderstanding over policy or a mild disagreement about philosophy or oversight responsibilities. Far from it. What occurred was a direct assault on the heart of what makes the Intelligence Committee a unique and credible and respected entity in behalf of our national security. -- Senator Pat Roberts
The information that is spoken of in the Intelligence Committee, the memos, letters, and other information that is in the Intelligence Committee, has to remain secret. That wasn't done in this instance. -- Senator Harry Reid
<font size=4>
Democrats had the audacity to suggest the Senate investigate how these attack plans might have been obtained - the equivalent of offenders blaming the cops because they got caught. This effort at spin control is patently absurd in any event, since by Senator Rockefeller's own admission, this strategy memo was not an official committee document and certainly contained no intelligence information. -- Senator Jon Kyl
<font size=3>
The memo clearly reflects staff frustration with the conduct of the investigation and the difficulties of obtaining information from the administration. -- Senator Jay Rockefeller
<font size=4>
It is time for Senate Republicans to recognize that the Pat Leahys and the Jay Rockefellers, the Barbara Boxers and the Carl Levins are not there to help the Republicans advance the national security interests of the United States. -- Hugh Hewitt
In our political system, Congressional oversight of our intelligence agencies is arguably necessary, sometimes even useful. But for that to be true it has to be mature oversight conducted by grownups, and not by political hacks willing to put election advantage above the vital needs of intelligence. -- Editor, Wall Street Journal
The Democrats who sit on one of the most sensitive and important bodies in our government have apparently decided that gathering, assessing and analyzing intelligence is less important than booting this president from office. -- Oliver North
The Democratic memo reveals that much of what the media has been focusing on for the past six months has been a set-up job. The staff and Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee have been selling story after story (think the Niger yellowcake and "imminent" threat controversies). Out of whole cloth, they have contrived an ambiguous but ominous speculation about the Bush administration's sinister motives for invading Iraq. Now, through this one memo, they have been revealed as nothing short of cynical political operatives. And the reporters who ran with their hints are revealed as breathless and easily manipulated amateurs. -- Hugh Hewitt
For the most part, influential newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times buried stories on the memo deep inside their pages. It's hard to imagine that these newspapers would have been so nonchalant had someone uncovered a Republican plot to use an intelligence inquiry to help win a presidential election. Why, that's the stuff of which Pulitzer Prizes are made. -- Linda Chavez
If those people are still in the room handling intelligence given to us by other nations so that they can undermine our commander in chief, that misuse of intelligence is unacceptable. -- Senator Bill Frist
This is one of those committees that you should never, ever have anything politicized because you're dealing with the lives of our soldiers and our citizens. -- Senator Zell Miller
There is nothing a terrorist likes better than seeing discord, disharmony, and political infighting among the people they are trying to terrorize. -- Senator Kit Bond
<font size=3>
intelmemo.com |
