Closed Senate Session
From Talkleft.com, Senator Harry Reid’s email (and at Raw Story) regarding the closed senate session. As LifeLikePundits mentions, this was prompted by the recent indictment of Libby, talking about the (mis)information leading up to the war in Iraq, with Senator Harry Reid invoking rule 21.
Why are the Democrats doing this? According to an e-mail statement I received:
- Most important decision a President makes is to put American lives at risk and go to war. Many of us supported the decision to invade Iraq based on the national intelligence presented at the time.
- Over the past few months, and vividly last Friday, we’ve learned that we were given bad information. Americans were intentionally deceived. White House indictments confirm Republicans tried to silence critics and cover up the real intelligence.
- Republicans committed to investigate how national intelligence was used to set the stage for war. Now, they are refusing to keep that commitment. What are they afraid of America learning?
- Republicans must come clean. It is our shared responsibility to be straight with the American people. Stakes could not be higher. That is why we are demanding answers through an unprecedented closed Senate session.
Republican Sen. Trent Lott, the former majority leader, said that the rule had been invoked two or three times under his tenure as majority leader, but only after a pre-arranged, negotiated discussion.
“This is not the way it has been done,” Lott said. “We would never surprise each other … This is very unfortunate for the Senate. It’s not to say there isn’t important information to be discussed … but I’m astounded by this.”
Why are the Republicans feeling so hurt by this? Didn’t Harry Reid do the right thing? He followed the rules, so what is the matter with Lott? If it is about (mis)information leading to a war, shouldn’t it be discussed in a secret matter if it involves intelligence assets that might still be in play? Perhaps they feel he is pulling a stunt, like a child pulling a tantrum, as Slobokan indicates.
Cross-posted at The English Guy.
There are currently no comments on this thread.