Posted on 08/10/2004 6:29:16 AM PDT by Dan from Michigan
U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, is defending his comment on Fox News television last week that the Sept. 11 commission resembles a "traveling circus."
(snip)
The two (Rogers & Nadler) were discussing recent terror warnings and the Sept. 11 commission, when Rogers said the commission's efforts to continue lobbying for its recommendations were a "traveling circus."
On Monday, Rogers said he was referring to the political nature of the debate over the commission's report - which has been published as a book - and the panel members' attempts to extend the commission's life another 18 months.
"Asking for 18 more months, paid for by U.S. taxpayers so they can go out and promote the findings of the book, like a book tour, I think that's inappropriate," Rogers said.
He also said the Sept. 11 commission - a bipartisan board created by Congress in late 2002 that issued a final report in July - suffered from a lack of credibility before its final report was released.
"One of its members was stealing documents and is still under investigation. You had one of the members on Comedy Central joining in at poking fun at the president during the engagement of the commission ; it had some real credibility problems right up to the issuance of the report,"
(snip)
Rogers said the main point behind of his "traveling circus" comment was that the debate over national security and terrorism has become too political.
"This comes down to the very basic safety of Americans," Rogers said. "By making this a blatant, vicious, political argument, we do a huge disservice to the national security interest of America. What I said was we all ought to knock it off. We need to have a substantive policy debate."
(Excerpt) Read more at hometownlife.net ...
Why does it say this is an excerpt when it isn't?
It is. I snipped parts of the middle of the article instead.
It was a circus. Why shouldn't he say so? Granted, it was more of a roadside-attraction-on-a-lesser-used-county-road type circus than a B&B traveling circus. But they did get out and do the talk-show comedy-show thing.
Thanks Dano, my mistake.
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