Well one thing’s for sure, he’s not running TO anything. I always got the feeling he disliked Bush so I guess a retirement in Paraquay is out. On the other hand he always buckled under the weight of the rubber stamp and as those subpoenas start rolling off the presses he’s bound, at the very least, to have a sour run for re-election. As heavy handed as he’s been in his role it would be a distinct pleasure to support the campaign of a Dem candidate against him.

Pat Roberts is a part of the ongoing criminal conspiricy

once all of the shit becomes public, roberts would have to explain why he failed to uncover all of the crimes

under freeper logic, mr roberts is hoping that â€Out Of Sight is out of mindâ€

in other words

maybe we could forget that pat roberts was the person responsibile for the FAILURE TO CONDUCT CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT

like that’s gonna happen

It does seem to be a big deal when two very senior Senators walk away from their seniority on an important Committee. Extended very public embarassment might not be too palatable for them, of course the actual details of what Democrats might want to investigate are still secrets… probably only a few high ranking Intelligence Committee members would know the details of such things right now.

Also, note that the Lawrence Journal-World editorial talks about amorphous â€there are concerns†about partisanship, while the McClatchy article clearly attributes that concern to Roberts himself. I think we can draw pretty clear conclusions on the source of the descriptions of Roberts’ glowing reputation among â€media sources.â€

Check out the comments on the editorial; they’re highly entertaining, and a great illustration of how different things are from the days when an editorial writer could assume that most of their readers had few news sources other than their own paper.

When I grow up, I want to get an unredacted version of the first SSCI report and point out all the inaccuracies in it–and the partisan spin it gave the whole thing.

Oh boy, EW. Is there any chance you’d be looking for a co-author if that day ever comes?

John Casper

Interesting suggestion. Sounds like Kit Bond will get the Vice Chair position. I doubt he’ll be as effective at representing. He has four years left in his term, right?

kim

Technically, Hatch isn’t walking away. He’s the Finance Chair right now, so it’s a question of choosing between two positions. Money versus spooks, you decide!

He has been such an impediment to Phase 2, an agent of BushCo. I expect he’s hoping to slide out of the hot-seat he’s going to be sitting in when the facts are laid bare. He’s the one that’s been holding the smoking gun for years. He can run, but he can’t hide…

I want to get an unredacted version of the first SSCI report and point out all the inaccuracies in it–and the partisan spin it gave the whole thing.

Here’s my favorite inaccurate, partisan rewrite from the SSCI.

The actual analyst’s notes from the INR Memo without the qualifiers says

apparently convened by Valerie Wilson with the idea that the agency and the larger USG could dispatch Joe to Niger.

INR Memo Notes – Niger/Iraq uranium Meeting CIA, 2/19/06

The SSCI totally changes the quote in a way to make it appear that sending Wilson was Plame’s idea and still put quotation marks in the report as if it was an exact quote of the analyst’s notes.

â€apparently convened by [the former Ambassador’s wife ] wife who had the idea to dispatch [ him ]â€

SSCI Senate Report on Prewar Intelligence July 7th, 2004

And the deception worked very nicely, the right used this false quote over and over again to discredit Wilson and Plame.

Full text from the INR Memo

Meeting apparently convened by Valerie Wilson, a CIA WMD managerial type and the wife of Amb Joe Wilson, with the idea that the agency and the larger USG could dispatch Joe to Niger to use his contacts there to sort out the Niger/Iraq uranium sale question.

INR Memo Notes – Niger/Iraq uranium Meeting CIA, 2/19/06

how’s my favorite finder of obscure facts and links ???

polly is, of course, everyone’s favorite and also objectively the best finder of obscure but important facts and links. But, ahem, I’m trying to remember who gets credit for noticing her own particular favorite SSCI inaccuracy mentioned here . . .

That’s just an excuse to mention there’s Walton’s long redacted 11-15-06 memo opinion on letting in various classified info in the context of CIPA 6(a). This is the one, i believe, that Fitzgerald has made his interlocutory appeal on. I’m in the middle of reading it. So far it’s not hugely revealing, though I’m getting into some interesting stuff on just what super-sensitive topics Libby is going to claim participated in causing his lapse of memory and his making up of conversations.

Looking at the archived clips and all now on the internet about the Republican chair of the committee reminds one of the sweep of history these past two+plus years, and the key part the committee’s chairman Roberts played in deflecting the minority away from the administration’s various intell management activities. I suppose the Phase One bipartisan first draft would be an interesting milestone to read; I was reminded of the hasty end to the 911 commission and the later news reports of the AbleDanger witness whose material was omitted because he presented it too late. I thought a lot about Porter Goss’ tutelage before his promotion to replace Tenet; the notes I found remind me of the early Hersh article describing Bolton’s helping the first B-2 administration get underway. Ew is reminding us Sen. Hatch is on the committee and also considering other plans; after all, both are elderly now and likely would enjoy less strenuous schedules. My news clips remind of the ignominious episode with Manny Miranda, not on intell committee, but a Hatch protege on Judiciary committee, whose next stop after the purloined email caper made the news was service directly to Frist, who, last week, announced his retirement from the senate long-planned now includes a new decision refusing to consider running in the 2008 presidency race. I wonder if there is more to the Miranda scandal than appeared in the media.
I think one of the changes likely to make it difficult for both PRoberts and Hatch could be the broadened proposal for the Group of 8 in briefings; as I understand it both sides of the aisle liked that DeWine proposal and included it in their respective second drafts of neoFISA.

I looking through the old news clips, this old item about Roberts’ early management of senate Intell committee especially captured the context. Now the secretary of defense position is repopulated; and this week the Bolton interim tenure issue likely will resurface.
I still worry that Frist might give one last declotured boost to vp Cheney’s theory of a strong executive by an attempt to denature the senate. Several of the signatories on the maverick MOU with respect to judiciary nominations are ending their terms with the closing of the 109th congress this month. This article describes Miranda as a principal person arranging for the conservative judge nominations to proceed. RMcGovern on antiwarDotCom and Lukery on watsitgood4DotBlogspotDotCom both wrote articles early in 2006 which are worth reading still.

As a resident of the hinterland, I offer a funny, real thing from outside the Beltway: a notice of Sunday’s sermon on the outdoor bulletin board of the Murray Hill Babptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, †The Elephant must die.â€

Hardly believing that Baptists, here, are referring to the Party of the Elephant, but, it makes a nice image…..and a nice Christmas wish.

Roberts isn’t going to get to move up on the Agriculture Committee — he will be able to stay on it, because Santorum lost — and the most likely other GOP Senator to lose a seat is Thomas from Wyoming (who, IIRC, is not up for re-election next year). He’s not even going to be ranking member of any of the subcommittees (see http://agriculture.senate.gov/sub.htm) — indeed, since he is on three of the 4 subcommittees, he might lose one of those assignments as the committee is reorganized under Democratic control.

polly

That was, indeed, precisely the inaccuracy I am most â€fond†of too.

There is a lot of comity in the Senate. I am always amazed at Leahy’s quiet stridency and meek followthrough. He is a representative of his constitutents; says his opinion, eloquently; then acts with respect to his compeers in committee and Senate. Leahy, too, is elderly now. The pace of change purposely is slow in the upper chamber. It will be interesting to see the pace it selects, wanting to contain or see that the courts will restrain, the putatively unitary executive. Much of the senate’s work may be contingent on the way the presidential primaries develop in 2008, as well.

Lest I diverge too far from the original thread, now quiescent, I reviewed the links from my footnote [1] above, and learned at least nominally KS received $1.3 billion in corn subsidies over the 10 years ending 2004; but corn ethanol has ramped up vastly since then, and the Environmental Working Group statistics appear to grasp but do not identify specifically, whether their statewise view has examined corporate home office location versus outholdings locations in other states in the region; and, over the past few days for the first time ever on NPR I thought I heard an actual commercial, in the company’s voice instead of the reader employee of NPR; the ad was for ADM, the corn ethanol company; the grist website in footnote [1] in my prior post discusses ADM. Roberts will have plenty of work to do to serve ag interests in KS. We have relied on some ag income in the past on this ranch, so, I appreciate the realities of global economics; but large companies which operate mass scale ag exist in a rarefied atmosphere with respect to US government payouts, and figure importantly in trade agreements. It is kind of like the insights we have about the propagandizing of intelligence Robert’s oversaw, when one engages in international commerce: it helps to develop one’s own expertise; it saves weeding out the factoids from the underlying influences which are moving prices and markets.

A lot of topics here; I hoped to see Pollyusa review those 4 calendar dates Ew posts in the next thread; I am developing a lot around those. And for the specious reshaping of SCSI phases I, and II language, I am sure I could read some Ew threads way back and find ample nuggets. I am glad Pollyusa is keeping the cataloguing process serviceable.