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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (15758)	11/10/2003 2:13:37 AM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793677

Part 2 of 4---SNOW: All right. Now, last Tuesday, somebody leaked to Fox News's Sean Hannity a Democratic staff memo that laid out a strategy for making political hay out of Intelligence Committee investigations of the White House. Among the key points in the memo: "Pull the majority along as far as we can on issues that may lead to major new disclosures regarding improper or questionable conduct by administration officials." And, "Prepare to launch an independent investigation when it becomes clear we have exhausted the opportunity to usefully collaborate with the majority. The best time to do so will probably be next year." Senator Roberts, your reaction? ROBERTS: Well, the one thing you didn't show was "to pull the trigger," which I think is an interesting term. 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. Our leader, on Friday, got up, Bill Frist, the majority leader, and asked, "Would somebody please disavow this strategic partisan attack plan?" It's been a week, and we have had nobody, except a couple Democrat members and Senator Miller from Georgia, publicly state that this should not be done. This is really, in the words of Bob Kerrey, who is the former vice chairman and a Democrat and from Nebraska and a good friend, said this tears at the comity of this very important committee because of the importance of the committee in regards to our national security. I'm very upset about this. SNOW: Senator Evan Bayh made some comments on the Senate floor regarding what may have been part of the inspiration for this. He talked about some pressures on Senator Jay Rockefeller, the top Democrat on the committee. Let's listen to what Senator Bayh had to say. U.S. SENATOR EVAN BAYH (D-IN): Senator Rockefeller has been under intense pressure -- intense pressure -- by some others to pursue a much more partisan line of inquiry, to be much more confrontational. Instead he has chosen to try and pursue the cooperative path first. SNOW: Has Senator Rockefeller said anything to you about this? ROBERTS: We had a private conversation about it, and I have worked with Senator Rockefeller in the past; we've had a good working relationship. But somebody has to disavow this memo... SNOW: Well, then, was this... ROBERTS: ... or it's going to be very difficult to put this committee back together again. We are going to finish the inquiry. That's our primary duty right now, in terms of the credibility and the time on this of intelligence prior to going to Iraq. But it's going to be very difficult to put the committee back together again without somebody saying we're not going to launch this attack plan, this partisan attack plan, and pull the trigger, not only on me, but on the entire committee. >>>>>>>>>>>>>

To: KLP who wrote (15758)	11/10/2003 10:57:09 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793677

THE CASE AGAINST KERRY: (Andrew Sullivan) Just read the following paragraph: Democratic strategists have blamed the Massachusetts senator more than his campaign, saying he is known to be a candidate who doesn't take advice well or likes to split his staff into competing camps. Indeed, his presidential campaign is layered with high-priced advisers, some of whom have duplicative roles and are roughly divided into two factions: those based in Washington, where Kerry has been a senator for 18 years, and others from his home town of Boston. If this is how he runs a campaign, how would he run an administration? andrewsullivan.com