Tempest in the Senate as Democrats Fight Back and force a closed session on Iraq war

Angry GOP agrees to deal for task force to look into status of intelligence inquiry, notes the San Francisco Chronicle.

Republicans were outraged at what they called a political stunt. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., complained that the Senate had been "hijacked by the Democratic leadership."

The claim that GOPers were shocked by this move and not warned that Democrats would be determined to push the issue is misleading and flat-out, false. The Raw Story outlines how GOP leaders stalled and broke promises for years. It is disgraceful to see Republicans complain and point fingers about one of the most important issues today. They attempted to change the subject by appointing an extremist activist right wing judge to the Supreme Court. But it did not work. The indictment of Libby and the CIA Leak case are not going away. Everything is tied to this illegal war. It is time that the accountability be accessed. This Republican-controlled Congress has a constitutional duty to investigate the wrongdoings of the Administration. They are not doing their job.

Again, from the SF Chronicle:

The dispute Tuesday focused on a promise made in February 2004 by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, to conduct an inquiry into whether statements and reports by top administration officials before the war misrepresented intelligence from U.S. agencies.

But the committee's ranking Democrat and vice chairman, Sen. John D. Rockefeller of West Virginia, complained that the Bush administration had stymied the investigation by withholding documents and pressuring Republicans to ease off the inquiry.

The Democrats are successful in bringing back attention to the priority issues - the reasons to invade Iraq, its relationship to misused intelligence by the The White House and TreasonGate. Senator Rockefeller states the fundamentals in his statement:

Senator Rockefeller STATEMENT ON THE CLOSED SESSION OF THE SENATE TO DISCUSS MATTERS RELATED TO THE MISUSE OF INTELLIGENCE

“At its core, this is about accountability -- Congressional accountability and White House accountability.

“Congress has a fundamental, constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight – that’s what checks and balances are all about – and we have utterly failed.

“My colleagues and I have tried for two years to do our oversight work, and for two years we have been undermined, avoided, put off, and vilified by the other side. Any line of questioning that has brought us too close to the White House has been thwarted.

“At some point the majority needs to understand that we are willing to bring the Senate to a halt until they will join us in conducting the kind of investigation this situation demands.

“The American people still want to know – now more than ever – why the United States went to war, whether they were misled, and whether our intelligence was misused.

“Whether these actions amount to crimes is not the litmus test for congressional oversight. Mr. Fitzgerald is investigating possible criminal activity by senior White House officials, and we won’t and shouldn’t get in the way of his work.

“But the American people deserve to know not just whether this Administration committed crimes, but whether this Administration told the truth – the full truth, the straight story.

“And if they didn’t – if they misled about the war and if they misused intelligence, then the American people need to know that the Congress will do everything in its power to make sure that it never happens again.”