For those who wonder what all the bisiness about those Intel committe memos was about.. Tony Blankley [1]puts it plainly:
1) Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee had drafted plans to use and misconstrue classified intelligence data to politically undercut the president of the United States (“pulling the trigger” closer to the election);
2) the CIA and other intelligence offices of the government have identified 10 years of contacts between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden —thus tending to dramatically justify our war against Iraq and contradicting one of the major Democratic Party criticisms of President Bush’s Iraq policy; and
3) Democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee were working closely with outside groups to block judicial appointments for the purpose of ethnic bigotry and unethical manipulation of court proceedings. In Sen. Durbin’s case,the memo advised that Miguel Estrada be blocked as he is “especially dangerous because he is Latino.” In Sen. Kennedy’s case, the memo advised to stall Judge Gibbons appointment so she couldn’t get on the bench in time to decide the pending Michigan affirmative action case. The memo questioned “the propriety” of such tactics, but nonetheless advised it. She was confirmed just two months after the landmark case in question.
Tony goes further:
In Sen. Durbin’s case,the memo advised that Miguel Estrada be blocked as he is “especially dangerous because he is Latino.”
Can you imagine this kind of comment having been made by a republican and leaking out and not being pounced on by the press?
In Sen. Kennedy’s case, the memo advised to stall Judge Gibbons appointment so she couldn’t get on the bench in time to decide the pending Michigan affirmative action case. The memo questioned “the propriety” of such tactics, but nonetheless advised it. She was confirmed just two months after the landmark case in question.
Kennedy ball up a Judicial nomination for political reasons? Who’d have thought it?
The Wall Street Journal editorialized the other day that the Democrats on the committee seemingly didn’t really help to run the committee, but rather “their real bosses are the liberal interest groups that more or less tell the Senators when to sit, speak and roll over.”
As good a quote as I’ve pulled form them in a couple years, that one.