Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Now, today, tomorrow, soon, the six senators appointed to report back to the Senate will, I suspect, reveal that nothing has been accomplished.  The GOP version will be that "it takes time" and that Democrats stalled.  The Democratic version, of course, will be based on the facts.  

Pesky little facts like this one:

In remarks last week at the Woodrow Wilson Center, [Sen. Roberts] said the long-awaited phase-two report is "basically on the back burner," indefinitely postponed while the Committee turns its attention to overseeing intelligence reform. Which suits Roberts fine: As he put it, "The bottom line is that (the administration) believed the intelligence, and the intelligence was wrong." The New Republic, 3/28/05

Or this one:

There is no phase two. Last week, a commission appointed by President George W. Bush under public pressure to look into American intelligence about weapons of mass destruction issued yet another report highly critical of the intelligence services. Like the one released by the Senate committee last July, the commission's report left unaddressed the question of whether our leaders told us the truth as they sought our support for their Iraq war plans. That did not stop Roberts, however, from using the occasion as an excuse to close the books on phase two. "I don't think there should be any doubt that we have now heard it all regarding prewar intelligence," Roberts told The Washington Post, presumably with a straight face. "I think that it would be a monumental waste of time to re-plow this ground any further." St. Louis Dispatch, 4/6/05

Or this one:

It has since become blindingly apparent that Senator Pat Roberts, the committee chairman, intends to retreat on that commitment. In a July 20 letter to US Senator John Kerry, the Kansas Republican made it clear that he doesn't see that as an important priority, and that even if his committee completes phase II, the results may not be made public. Boston Globe, 9/13/2005

If the report says that Phase II is "ongoing", we should ask why it's taken well over a year to complete. After all, it was Sen. Roberts who told the American people on Meet the Press on July 11, 2004 that Phase II "is ongoing, right now."  Or where is that independent commission Sen. Roberts promised in the same interview?

I want that report. I want that report to expose what a damn liar Sen. Roberts is, and I want the Democrats to hold strong to their fiery resolve on this issue.  Let Bush call us traitors. Let him say we are aiding the enemy. Let him continue blubbering his cacophony of lies while we stand true to the American people.  We forced a closed session once.  We'll do it again.  If the deadline passes, we'll do it.  If the report shows stonewalling, we'll do it.  We'll do it again and again and again until Phase II is complete.  

Sure, the rhetoric from the right will get more vitriolic, more hateful.  But that will be our barometer, because the more vicious and defensive the Bush administration gets, the closer we are getting to the truth.