From the Congressional Record - Senate, November 7, 2003:
Senator Kyl:
...I would like to take just a moment to try and explain why some of us feel so strongly about this. I served on this committee for 8 years. There is a rule that a Senator can only serve for 8 years because we never want this to become a politicized committee. We never want it to be a source where power is gathered around people who maintain their position. This is supposed to be a place where a Senator comes in, gets expertise, serves time, and then moves on. I had the honor and privilege of serving for 8 years.
One of the things that always stuck with me was the fact that it was not bipartisan, it was nonpartisan. The staff was selected primarily from the intelligence community, people who were experts in matters of intelligence. When I first came in, I said I had a member of my staff who used to be with the Intelligence Committee. He has the top clearances, and I would like to have him on staff to help me on this committee. Bob Kerrey, the former Senator from Nebraska and distinguished former chairman referred to by Senator Roberts, made the point at the time: No, we cannot do that because we do not want there to be any suggestion that there is influence in the committee from the private staff of individual Senators. This is professional intelligence community staff, and if it ever were thought to be otherwise, we would never get the cooperation of the intelligence community providing us with secrets that are the most significant, important secrets of our Nation.
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. Think for a moment what would happen if it were perceived that they were political staff just like all the other committees. There is nothing wrong with political staff, but we all understand they have a substantive and a political dimension to the work that they do. We all operate within that understanding. But here, think about what a Senator could do knowing all of these secrets if they decided to use them for partisan political advantage....
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?r108:18:./temp/~r108q5VBkw:e31935:
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