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Posted on 11/01/2005 7:41:34 PM PST by InvisibleChurch
* Yesterday Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid demanded that the Senate go into closed session to demand a report to follow up on a 2004 Senate Intelligence Committee investigation on what the CIA knew or didn't know in the run-up to the Iraq war. * Invoking Senate Rule 21 he forced a closed session of the US Senate to "demand, on behalf of the American people why these investigations aren't being conducted." * For the record Rule 21 reads:
On a motion made and seconded to close the doors of the Senate, on the discussion of any business which may, in the opinion of a Senator, require secrecy, the Presiding Officer shall direct the galleries to be cleared; and during the discussion of such motion the doors shall remain closed. * Thus there was no vote needed - majority or otherwise. Reid cooked this up as a publicity stunt and it worked. It made all the morning papers.
* But a stunt is a stunt. It is not policy. Even NBC's top correspondent, Andrea Mitchell said that the Senate Democrats were being "disingenuous" because Senate Democrats had plenty of time - before, during, and since to have raised these questions. And they didn't have the guts do it. * Even more amazing? Newsweek's Howard Fineman agreed with her. * This is part of an organized effort on behalf of Democrats to overcome their extreme distress of last week when US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald declined to indict anyone on the original charge of leaking Valerie Plame's name. * Nevertheless the Dems are running all over town telling anyone with a notebook or a tape recorder - including children walking to school with backpacks and grownups walking along K Street with iPods - that this is, or should be, all about WMDs or lack of them. * On Monday, reporters were giddily looking forward to Scooter Libby's trial when, they had convinced themselves, Vice President Dick Cheney would be forced to testify. * In a series of phone calls I was happy to dampen their spirits by making the following points:
1. Fitzgerald said the Libby indictment was about lying, not about WMDs
2. Any trial is going to focus solely on lying, not WMDs 3. If a trial takes place, and if VP Cheney testifies, the questioning is not going to be conducted by Larry King taking questions from reporters * On the Judge Alito front, the Democrats immediately overreached there as well. They circulated a memo claiming, in effect, that as a US Attorney, he went easy on an Italian mafia prosecution. * Chris Matthews, like Andrea Mitchell and Howard Fineman not known as an apologist for Republican causes, immediately reacted with fury, calling the memo a "pretty disgusting document," and saying it was "amazingly bad politics." * Remember the early days of the campaign against now-Chief Justice John Roberts? Remember how the National Abortion Rights Action League ran an ad which was so mean and misleading that it had to be withdrawn within hours?
* Same thing's going on here. With the same result. Judge Samuel Alito is going to be confirmed. He is a thoughtful, intelligent, extraordinarily experienced jurist. * If Republicans learned anything in the Monica scandal it was this: Overreaching is seriously punished by voters as soon as they detect it. * Mark November 1, 2005 on your calendar. It will turn out to be the date that the political tide in Washington began to turn. -- END --
Copyright ©2005 Richard A. Galen
a picture what captions itseff
"I couldn't have done it without your daughter's contribution"
"I wonder where that hand has been, yeech"
Reid's stunt and Alito's nomination motivated me to send a modest contribution to the RNC. Informed them that free spending and border control would need to be addressed before I donate more.
"You all gotta see my new humidor"
Somewhere along the line, we must be related cause we think alike. I'm about to let the moths out of my wallet too!
What those stoopit Democrats don't understand is this Lock Down prank will do more to bring the Republicans together than most anything else that could have been done.
I wonder how Bill Frist got Reid to do this? Masterful.
Even NBC's top correspondent, Andrea Mitchell said that the Senate Democrats were being "disingenuous" because Senate Democrats had plenty of time - before, during, and since to have raised these questions.
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Now there is a profound, Pulitzer-prize-winning observation -- THE LIBS ARE DISINGENUOUS....
No, it turned a long time ago.
This is not a change of the tide, just the trough of a wave. Ant the wave is a tidal wave.
The timing of this is great, because when the Mid Terms roll around things should be well in hand, here and quite probably in Iraq as well.
Rich Galen is one of my favorites.
I just finished reading his article and then saw your thread.
He's a treasure!
See? Insisting on the whole enchilada gets us what we want!
For the next pick I want a judge who'll rule it legal to take the entire Senate minority and put their heads on pikes outside the Capitol.
The Dems have truly jumped-the-shark this time...
That report showed that much of the WMD intelligence was from Clinton days.
The democrats are in desperation mode. This was merely a ploy to take the focus off Alito's nomination and redirect it back to Libby, Plame and WMD. They already know they will not be able to win the PR war on or fillibuster Alito unless the public's focus is elsewhere, and even then, it is doubtful they can do it. In their lame attempt to do so, they dealt themselves a load of bad PR, and were only able to divert attention for a short time. When their usually dependable allies in the 'old media' call them disingenuous, you know they screwed up.
The Alito nomination already persuaded me to break my rule and donate directly to the RNC in gratitude. I'll do the same for the Senatorial fund WHEN confirmed, even if it ends in Chafee's pocket.
Today broke the stand off I've been in since at least the McCain Mutiny earlier in the year, in that, I'm going to support ALL Republicans to office again. Whatever my grievances with some of them, the Dems deserve to be crushed more. I hope the Dems realize what they've done. ;-)
This isn't to say I won't still support primary challenges. Laffey against Chafee. Etc..but I was going to work for him to lose in the General if he made it, now I'm standing down.
From Rich Galen's lips to God's ears...
bttt
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