You talk. But how many
facelifts have you had?
Posted on 08/15/2004 1:06:08 PM PDT by LibWhacker
Democrat Warns That Blocking Goss' CIA Nomination Is 'Wrong Fight' in Election Year
WASHINGTON Aug. 15, 2004 — The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee warned fellow Democrats in the Senate on Sunday against trying to block the nomination of Rep. Porter Goss as CIA director, saying that would be picking the wrong fight in this election year.
Democrats should ask tough questions of Goss, R-Fla., at Senate confirmation hearings next month, but "my view is this is the wrong fight," Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"To get stuck in a fight about Porter Goss after tough questions are asked of Porter Goss is not where we ought to be this fall," said Harman, who has no vote on the matter because the Senate confirms presidential nominees.
Goss resigned as chairman of the House intelligence panel last week after President Bush nominated him to replace George Tenet at CIA.
Harman said Congress should move swiftly to push through recommendations from the Sept. 11 commission, including creating a new national intelligence director.
Bush "missed an opportunity" for intelligence reform by nominating Goss as permanent CIA director, she said.
Many Democrats have criticized the selection of Goss, saying he is too partisan for a job that requires relaying objective advice to policy makers in the executive and legislative branches.
But Democrats also are mindful of the 2002 congressional elections in which the White House and Republicans put them in a political box regarding creation of the new Homeland Security Department.
Democrats opposed the Bush administration's demand that some federal workers lose long-held civil service protections. But the GOP convinced many voters that Democrats were blocking important legislation to protect the country even though the new department began as a Democratic plan.
Members of both parties returned from their August recess last week to attend hearings on the findings of the 9-11 Commission, which in late July released a scathing report on pre-Sept. 11 intelligence gathering, citing multiple failures.
Senate leaders want to enact changes the report suggested by the first week in October.
"It is an election year, but this issue transcends politics and terrorists do not wait," Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on "Meet the Press."
Meanwhile, Time magazine reported in its Monday edition on a March "terrorist summit" of al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan's lawless tribal area of Waziristan near the Afghanistan border.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told Time that a major explosives expert participated in the meeting. U.S. officials fear it was an important planning session for an attack, and that some people involved may already be in the United States, Time said.
Roberts said he would guess that al-Qaida in a future attack would "go back to heavy motorized vehicles and explosions, because that's what we they do best. Maybe airplanes."
But he cautioned, "It's very difficult to get that specific."
The threat of an attack before the election spurred Goss' nomination.
And Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday" that a permanent CIA director is urgently needed.
An intelligence overhaul probably "will be subordinated for the moment" to focus on Goss' nomination, Lugar said. "And Porter Goss is a good person to be at the president's side."
The Bush team has the 'rats chasing shadows.
Yeah, he should be a Democrat!
I wish they would try to stop Goss's nomination. It would be great if Bush could go into a debate and point out how little the 'Rats actually care about intelligence.
LOL, and does anyone else also get the sense that the 'rat camp is ripe with fear? Afraid to attack. Afraid not to attack. It's a heck of a predicament: They're chasing shadows and they're paralyzed with fear at the same time! Heeheeheehee . . . BUSH IN A LANDSLIDE!!!
Yup . . . That is the problem for democrats, though. Bush can make case no matter what they do at this point. They've been extremely hostile to the intelligence community since before the Vietnam War. Done everything they can to cripple it. And it resulted in 9/11.
Hehehehe . . . As 'rats go, he'd be a democrat lightweight!
Klintoon met the DCI twice and we now know his NSA, Sandy the Burglar, was just another Clintonoid cover-up guy.
I sure hope somebody tags John Kerry to say that he will or will not keep Goss if he is elected..... This will sure to spin the fight.
I hear Gov McGreevy's highly qualified pick is between jobs.
Amazing how that Sandy Burglar burglary has "blown over," isn't it? Haven't heard anything about it in a week. Can't imagine the ruckus if he had been a pubbie. PI**ES ME OFF!
And they say we're partisan!
What about Marc Rich and Pardongate, I haven't seen anything on that in three years.
Did anyone else hear Jane the other day say that the 9-11 anniversary was "just days away"?
You can bet if a republican made that screwup we'd still be hearing baout it.
Yup! . . . The only time we ever heard about Marc Rich from the MSM, you'd have thought it was one of those inexplicable natural events, like an eruption of Kilauea or something. Bah! . . . The bastards! First, we've gotta seize the three branches of gov't . . . Then academia and the press will naturally follow.
We're close on the three branches of government. I don't think the day will ever come when the academics and media "elites" will ever be anything other than leftist crackpots.
Nice picture. She looks like one of those tall clone-making aliens in Attack of the Clones.
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