McCain Joins Dems In Seeking Review Of Administration Pre-War Statements

[JABBS]

Republican Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island have joined Democratic leaders in suggesting Senate investigators should interview senior Bush administration officials about their statements regarding the threat posed by Saddam Hussein before the war.

Other Republicans who may agree with the need for a review remain on the sidelines. The reason? Fear of a backlash from the party base, should they seek a 2008 presidential run. Unlike McCain -- also a likely 2008 candidate -- other Republicans wouldn't want to run as "mavericks."

According to The Hill, Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) said he would reserve judgment on whether senior administration officials should testify before the intelligence panel. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), who is also expected to run for president in 2008, deferred comment for now.

***

Senate Democrats have called for an evaluation of pre-invasion statements about the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons capabilities by President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is pressing for some of those officials to be interviewed as part of that evaluation process and has argued that a thorough report cannot be written without interviews, but Republicans have so far resisted.

But McCain, a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, said he would not endorse questioning President Bush or Vice President Cheney. Instead, he would target cabinet secretaries and key undersecretaries, like Douglas Feith, the former undersecretary of defense who played an important role in the months before the war in analyzing Iraqi intelligence for the White House.

That shouldn't be surprising, because ever since Bush created the bipartisan Robb-Silberman commission last year to investigate pre-war intelligence failures, McCain has made it clear that he thought the intelligence community failed Bush.

"The president of the United States, I believe, did not manipulate any kind of information for political gain or otherwise," McCain told The Boston Globe the week that the commission, which included McCain, was announced.

***

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) appears to be the main Republican running interference for the adminstration, with a boatload of excuses as to why interviews should be on the back burner.

He said Senators should first wait for the Senate Intelligence Committee to complete its much-delayed report on prewar intelligence. And Feith? Roberts doesn't want to investigate him until the Department of Defense inspector general has finished a review.

It's sort of a chicken-and-egg problem, according to The Hill, because Democrats want the interviews to factor into the report.

But there may be a more basic reason for Roberts' protests: "Republican strategists fear the prospect of Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz trying to justify statements they made about the Iraqi threat using hazy intelligence," the newspaper reports.

***

This item first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.

[NVMojo]

1. how does he balance this stand with his pro-war stand???

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x175641

[JABBS]

2. As stated

McCain has made it clear that he thought the intelligence community failed Bush.

He remains staunchly in favor of the need to remove Saddam.

[central scrutinizer]

3. Way to go Mr. Opportunism

fuck you - you have carried water for the maladministration even after their 2000 whispering campaign that you were crazy, had fathered a black baby and had a wife who was a crazed drug addict.

[JABBS]

5. agreed

my boss (a conservative) has always said I care more about the run-up to the 2000 South Carolina primary than McCain does.

[Greyhound]

19. That's when he lost the last bit of respect I had for him too. n/t

[spindrifter]

4. As a member of the Senate Armed Services

Committee, where is HRC's voice? McCain is in their maneuvering--has Hill hung up the gloves?

[JABBS]

7. it's the intelligence committee

that would have to call the interviews.

I assume HRC is standing with her Dem colleagues. The Hill didn't mention her in particular.

[babsbunny]

6. Ed Schultz said McCain is involved only to protect the Bush

and Cheney.

[jaxx]

8. McCain is all over the place with his ideals.

I just can't find it in myself to trust a guy who would say yes out of one side of his mouth, while the other side says no.

[karynnj]

9. What a hypocrite! He's on the Robb-Silberman Commission

which was charged with this task. When it was decided quietly with no words publicly said not to do part 2 of the study, did McCain say anything? When Kerry complained that it was not done and wrote a letter to the Intelligence committee that 9 other Senators signed, McCain did not sign it. Last week he was quoted by Cheney because he had said the President didn't distort the information. Now because over half the country believes Bush misled, McCain wants to investigate. So he's a maverick? HE'S A CHARLATAN

[JABBS]

10. to be fair

if the Senate committee interviewed cabinet members (such as Rumsfeld) that would be a step beyond the Robb-Silberman commission.

[karynnj]

11. Except the commission was suppose to do both Part 1 &2

when Bush first set it up. The agreement was Part 2 would be after the election - then it was quietly dropped.

[WatchWhatISay]

12. That wasnt the Robb-Silberman commission was it?

I thought it was the commission that printed that fat book about 9/11 (Roberts & ?) that were supposed to do "part deux" and never have.

[karynnj]

15. no that was the 9/11 commission headed by former NJ Gov Tom Keane and

former Rep Hamilton (?). With the WMD issue it was specifically broken down into Part I, which was whether the info was wrong due before the election and Part II that they committed to doing after the election which dealt with whether or not the information was manipulated by the administration.

Last spring, when it was clear that nothing was being done on Part II and the DSM had been released, Senator Kerry wrote a letter to Senator Roberts demanding that this part II be done and that it include looking at the DSM allegations. It was signed by 9 other Senators.

Senator Kerry received a letter from Senator Roberts that said there was no committment to doing this. After the Libby indictments, Senator Reid took the Senate into closed session with the demand that this investigation be done. Senator Roberts claimed this was a Democratic stunt and that they were nearly done with this and the Democrats knew it. To counter this, Senator Kerry put his letter and the Roberts response up on his web site.

I think this right, but it's from memory and the earliest part was a couple of years ago.

[BenDavid]

13. That is good news, but

they should not allow McCain to be the main speaker in any press conference. Nor give him nothing more then as a Senator that wants to look into this matter......

[Robbins]

14. Mccain

Mark my words Mccain Is preparing for his 2008 run to separate himself from Bush,and try to convince Independents,and some Moderate
Democrats he Is a moderate. Mccain Is a conservative not a right wing
conservative. The facts are he Is with Bush 90 percent of the time.
The press will try to portray him as a opposite of Bush.

[Punkingal]

16. Exactly,

He is the darling of the press, and they are planning to annoint him in 2008.

[BenDavid]

23. Robbins, you are right,

and as I stated many times before, the moveon folks have got to start next year running negative but truthful ads against McCain...Maybe two pictures with the right wording would suffice. One of McCain hugging Bush, and the other with McCain and Bush eating cake on the Monday afternoon after katrina hit..... We got to stop the mediawhores from making him the man to beat in 08. Remember how they were all on their knees when McCain ran in 00, and that straight talk express.....

[JABBS]

17. who is "they"

you can't stifle McCain or anyone else from talking on a subject ...

[Kahuna]

18. It's not good news. McCain has an alterior motive. He just wants to

gum up the works, and take credit for whatever the findings are. He's a snake and I don't trust him as far as I can throw him.

[dogday]

20. I used to like McCain till I saw him

with his arm around GW and it made me sick to see him sink that low. He used to have a great character but I guess politics changes everything....

[Savannah Progressive]

21. It's a waste of time and irrelevant.

REmember we voted 403-3 to KEEP THE TROOPS in Iraq despite the obvious lies.

[Idioteque]

22. I like Linc Chafee

He was the only Repub in the Senate to vote against the war. A lot of people here don't understand how much he helps us behind the scenes. He stops a lot of bad environmental legislation from getting out of committee. If he were to switch parties now, his committee spots would be filled by wingnuts.

John McCain, on the other hand, is a tool. I don't know why he is considered a moderate. He votes with the Democrats on like 5% of legislation.

[RazzleDazzle]

24. I can't for the life of me figure out why you, a blogger,

don't post the real link to that?

Like so: http://jabbs.blogspot.com/2005/11/mccain-chafee-join-democrats-in.html


You must not have very much respect for your own blog, or for the research value of DemocraticUnderground either.

And while I've got your attention, there's some kinda shit on your homepage whenever I go there, and I can't get rid of it. It's the junk on the left column. It shows up in the middle of the page and obscures good big pieces of the blog itself. I use Mozilla Firefox, and don't have this problem with anything else I can think of.

[snowbear]

25. Ok.. I'm confused.. who wrote the first section of that thread?

Was the comment "McCain, Chafee Join Democrats In Calling For Review Of Bush Administration's Pre-War Statements" a comment by someone on a blog?

The second section appears to have been written by the Boston Globe..

And the third section, by "The Hill"..

But the actual comment about McCain and Chafee joining Democrats in a review.. ...Who's comments are those? :crazy:

[JABBS]

26. What's the confusion?

The original post was from JABBS.

FYI, there's a new post from JABBS on this DU thread.