Why are the Pres, Rummy & House Repubs Dragging their Fe :: RunningForums.com

On the intelligence reform bill? This is an utter disgrace that House republicans and Rumsfeld are playing politics with our national security...I'm calling my Congressman this afternoon to voice my displeasure....

Bush Urged to Back Intelligence Reform Bill

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Mr. Bush, who has vowed to revive the bill...

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White House officials said late Monday afternoon that they were regrouping to salvage the bill.

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...a faction of conservatives who seemed determined to kill the legislation despite the potential embarrassment to the White House.

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White House officials said they were continuing to press recalcitrant Republicans.

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"The president wants to get this done,'' said Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman.

Lumping the President and all House Repubs in your thread title do put an unfair spin from how I read it. Rumsfeld and a fraction of House repubs sound like they're to blame.

jrjo wrote:

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Mr. Bush, who has vowed to revive the bill...

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White House officials said late Monday afternoon that they were regrouping to salvage the bill.

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...a faction of conservatives who seemed determined to kill the legislation despite the potential embarrassment to the White House.

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White House officials said they were continuing to press recalcitrant Republicans.

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"The president wants to get this done,'' said Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman.

Lumping the President and all House Repubs in your thread title do put an unfair spin from how I read it. Rumsfeld and a fraction of House repubs sound like they're to blame.

Disagree whole-heartedly...if the President assumes a leadership position on this issue it will get done...he needs to stand behind it and twist a couple of arms...if he doesn't it will not come up for a vote, and that would be a down-right shame...

Here is a copy of the email I just sent to my Congressman.

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To the Honorable James A. Leach,

It much to my dismay that I read this morning that the Intelligence Reform compromise bill negotiated between the House and Senate is being blocked by key house committee members.

This is far too important of an issue to allow simple hard-headedness in the Defense Department to protect their interests at the deference to the security of all of the citizens of our country.

I urge you to please do what you can to influence Mssrs. Sensenbrenner and Hunter along with House Leadership to allow this important piece of Legislation to be voted on. I respect your ability to do the right thing in this matter.

Sincerely,

Megawill

jrjo wrote:

Quote:

Mr. Bush, who has vowed to revive the bill...

Quote:

White House officials said late Monday afternoon that they were regrouping to salvage the bill.

Quote:

...a faction of conservatives who seemed determined to kill the legislation despite the potential embarrassment to the White House.

Quote:

White House officials said they were continuing to press recalcitrant Republicans.

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"The president wants to get this done,'' said Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman.

JRJO wrote:

Lumping the President and all House Repubs in your thread title do put an unfair spin from how I read it. Rumsfeld and a fraction of House repubs sound like they're to blame.

Here is an editorial that backs the inclusion of the President as a culpable party is this matter....

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EDITORIAL
A Truly Lame Duck

Published: November 23, 2004

The story of the 2004 intelligence reform bill just keeps getting sadder and sadder. House Republicans did grievous enough harm to this vital measure during the campaign. But then, pumped up with post-election hubris, they went even further in the lame-duck session of Congress and gave us all a depressing lesson in how narrow-minded politics and weak leadership can undermine what should have been a fairly easy triumph for bipartisanship.

Despite endless - and in some cases wrongheaded - compromises among Republican and Democratic negotiators, it proved impossible to make the reform plan weak enough to satisfy a core of right-wing House Republicans and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Now all hope for a decent piece of legislation seems lost.

The measure was intended to carry out the wise counsel of the bipartisan commission on the Sept. 11 attacks to create a new job with real power to oversee the 15 overlapping intelligence agencies that failed the nation before 9/11 and the war in Iraq. President Bush resisted the idea, just as he had resisted creating the panel itself, but he ultimately signed on.

In the Senate, a bipartisan team produced a sound measure. Among other things, it would have dealt with one of the biggest problems of the current system by breaking the Pentagon's grip on intelligence budgets. But House Republicans led by Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, weakened their version in the service of a turf-conscious Pentagon and committee chairmen who put their powers ahead of the nation's security. Meanwhile, James Sensenbrenner Jr., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and other members of the House tried to turn the bill into a campaign commercial by larding it with foolish and irrelevant new police powers.

After the election, House and Senate negotiators tried to drag an actual law out of this morass, removing the added police powers and other poison-pill measures. The Senate negotiators, Susan Collins for the Republicans and Joseph Lieberman for the Democrats, were so eager to get a bill that they made excessive concessions on the powers of the national intelligence director. The compromise also gutted the authority of a proposed panel to safeguard Americans' civil liberties against expanded government powers to combat terrorists.

We take Mr. Bush at his word when he says he lobbied hard to get the bill through. But if that's the case, his lieutenants had a peculiar way of respecting the election mandate that they keep insisting he's won. Despite Mr. Rumsfeld's denials, it seems obvious that he lobbied against the president's stated policy. The House Republican leadership, which rammed the president's prescription drug bill to passage by keeping the vote open for hours past the deadline in order to strong-arm resistant legislators, seemed less than lethargic on this key issue. Tom DeLay, the House majority leader who found time last week to push through rules that would allow him to keep his post if indicted, kept a low profile. Speaker Dennis Hastert refused to permit a vote on the compromise bill rather than irritate the intractable committee heads.

And intractable was an understatement. The White House said the president contacted both Mr. Hunter and Mr. Sensenbrenner to urge them to compromise. The evidence suggests that either Mr. Bush was less than forceful in his pleas or the two veteran Republicans have a stunning lack of respect for the wishes of their newly re-elected chief executive. Mr. Hunter at one point rejected language written by Vice President Dick Cheney's lawyer. Mr. Sensenbrenner rejected a section of the bill even though it contained his own language.

Mr. Bush campaigned on the idea that he is the man to handle the aftermath of 9/11. But if he could not deliver a sound bill with the Democrats, most Republicans, the entire 9/11 commission, the 9/11 families and a lot of ordinary Americans backing him up, what will happen on something actually hard?

There's talk now about passing some version of the bill next month. As much as we want real intelligence reform, that's a bad idea if Mr. Bush is still not ready to step up. Senator Collins says she's through compromising. We support her enthusiastically. Too much harm has already been done.

Last edited by megawill on 11/23/04 - 12:53; edited 1 time in total

megawill wrote:

Here is a copy of the email I just sent to my Congressman.

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Why did you use your RiffRaff name....now PH will be audited for you being a muckraker....

Did President Push for Intel Reform

The Pres needs to stand up and put these idealogues in their place....

megawill wrote:

Thank you Mr. President, you did the right thing...

Just curious, after writing to your congressman earlier in disgust, will you now write to the President with accolades?

jrjo wrote:

Just curious, after writing to your congressman earlier in disgust, will you now write to the President with accolades?

I'd hardly call my email to congressman 'disgust'. I've given the Pres his just due for seeing this through...it was the right decision in my opinion and I give him credit for that...

Why are the Pres, Rummy & House Repubs Dragging their Fe

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