Burnt Orange Report

November 01, 2005

U.S. Senate (Done) Meeting in Closed Session

By Phillip Martin

Update: The Senate is back, and there will be a Task Force of 6 United States Senators (3 from each party) to study "Phase 2" of the Intelligence Committee's investigation into the question of prewar intelligence -- who knew what, when they knew it, and if anything was hidden. The task force will report to the Senate leadership by November 14. The Democrat line seems to be that this investigation has been going on for 1 1/2 years, and it's time to see answers. The Republican line seems to be that they've been doing their job, and all of this was simply a stunt.

Well, anyone who ever complains that Democrats never stand up for what they believe in are going to have to get some new talking points.

Democrats in the United States Senate have shut down the U.S. Senate, accusing the Republican leadership and the Senate Intelligence Committee of putting politics ahead of the American people. The Democrats in minority want to talk about Iraq, the reasons we went to war, and how the White House may have manipulated information to sell the war to the American people.

The U.S. Senate is meeting in a closed door session -- no press, no cell phones, no blackberries, no pagers, no nothing -- and talking about why there has been no serious investigations into the corruption in the White House.

Here's what CNN is reporting:

Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, questioning intelligence that led to the Iraq war and deriding a lack of congressional inquiry.

"I demand on behalf of the America people that we understand why these investigations aren't being conducted," Democratic leader Harry Reid said.

Taken by surprise, Republicans derided the move as a political stunt.

"The United States Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership," said Majority Leader Bill Frist. "They have no convictions, they have no principles, they have no ideas," the Republican leader said.

This comes out on a day when President Bush had announced his plan to address the bird pandemic, and a day after he announced Alito as his newest nomination for the Supreme Court. Looks like the White House can't chance the subject that eaisly, as Democrats are hell bent on not letting the issue of what the White House knew before the war slip into the back pages of the newspapers.

There's lots of arguments for and against this. Sen. Frist, the Senate Majority Leaders, is accusing Democrats of "hijacking" the Senate and using a "publicity stunt" to shut down democracy.

At first blush, this seems a lot like what Texas Democrats did when they went to Ardmore, Oklahoma and New Mexico during the redistricting battles -- an extreme, admittedly risky move to draw the public's attention to problems they see with the Republican leadership...

Updates as I continue to get them...

Posted by Phillip Martin at November 1, 2005 04:04 PM | TrackBack

Comments

Must be a good day for breaking news. Tom De Lay also just got a new judge. Developing as Drudge would say?

Posted by: Baby Snooks at November 1, 2005 02:27 PM

Here's the AP story:

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBQ5WQLIFE.html

And the CNN story:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/01/senate.iraq.ap/index.html

Truth eventually prevails?

Posted by: Baby Snooks at November 1, 2005 02:34 PM

Is Cheney in the chamber?

Posted by: Baby Snooks at November 1, 2005 02:55 PM

"Half a trillion dollars and 2,000 of our kids later, we're still not sure if we were lied to or not...We need to find out if we were...If we weren't, then that's fine, but if we were...then they need to find the people who did it, rip their fingernails out, and get rid of them."

--Jack Cafferty

Damn, Jack.

--Me

Posted by: Phillip Martin at November 1, 2005 02:58 PM

Wow, so the revolution really wasn't televised.

LOL.

Posted by: Jim D at November 1, 2005 05:05 PM

And within the next two weeks the Bush Administration will have found a way to ruin the reputations of those six Democratic senators so that when they refuse to sign off on the report prepared by the Republican senators the public will just be told that it is partisan politics as usual. In fact it is. Republican partisan politics as usual.

Posted by: Baby Snooks at November 1, 2005 05:42 PM

How can we put our link on your page?

Posted by: cityscope at November 1, 2005 08:12 PM

As an ad, or as a blog link? 'Cause the name "cityscope" you left here in the comments has a link to it...

If you want something permanent on our main page -- either a link or an ad -- you should e-mail Karl-Thomas Musselman at:

karltm@burntorangereport.com

Posted by: Phillip Martin at November 1, 2005 08:37 PM

Talk about liberal hypocrisy at its best. The 'Rats complain about "secrecy" in the Bush Administration, then they shut the media out of the Senate chamber.

Posted by: Trey at November 2, 2005 09:27 AM

Correct me if I'm wrong -- the Democrats did not "shut out" the media -- the Senate rules did. The Democrats simply wanted to discuss an issue Republicans have been dragging their feet on for nearly 2 years.

Posted by: Matthew at November 2, 2005 09:33 AM

As I understand the rules, closing the chamber allows the Senate to openly discuss classified material which no doubt they did. Once again pointing out how this administration lied to Congress, to the United Nations, and the American people.

The Republicans as usual waved their little flags and agreed to a committee to "study it further" which of course they won't and in essence continuing the lies of the administration they blindly support.

Posted by: Baby Snooks at November 2, 2005 11:07 AM

Trey:

Do you really want our Senators discussing matters of national security on worldwide television?

Do you really want the White House not releasing public documents about lifetime appointees?

Posted by: Jim D at November 2, 2005 01:22 PM

Jim D:
Do you mean discussing or ranting? All Harry "Jr. Obstructionist" Reid wanted to do was rail about how Joe "cry about leaking then interview with Vanity Fair" Wilson's wife was outed then encourage insurgents with his whinefest about Iraq.
And as for the White House, they ultimately end up caving in to Democratic demands.
So if security was really at stake, Daschle II would've consulted with the leadership on the opposite side of the aisle before pulling the rabbit out of his hat.

Posted by: Trey at November 2, 2005 11:56 PM

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November 01, 2005

U.S. Senate (Done) Meeting in Closed Session

By Phillip Martin