*ROCKEFELLER'S TRASH: Fox News talk show host Sean Hannity unearthed a memo last week prepared by a Democratic Senate Intelligence Committee staffer that outlined various options the Democrats could pursue to politicize the committee's investigation of U.S. intelligence gathering in Iraq for next year's presidential campaign.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (W. Va.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, did not deny that the outrageous memo came from his staff. But rather than chastise or vow to fire the person who crafted it, he attacked Republicans for coming into possession of it after it had been reported in the news media. The memo, Rockefeller said, "was likely taken from a waste basket or through unauthorized computer access." Fox News reported, however, that the memo did not come from a trash can and was not improperly removed from a computer hard drive.
*'NO CONCRETE EVIDENCE': Even the liberal Washington Post could not spin away the naked politics of the Democrats' attempt to manipulate the proceedings of the Intelligence Committee in time of war.
"The memo makes clear," reported the Post, "that the committee staff does not have concrete evidence of administration misconduct, but is looking hard for it."
*'NEXT YEAR': Rather than "looking hard" for the real reasons the U.S. intelligence community failed in its efforts at gathering intelligence in Iraq, the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee have been looking hard for a way to create an issue for next year's campaign.
Said the memo: "Once we identify solid leads the majority does not want to pursue, we would attract more coverage and have greater credibility in that context than one in which we simply launch an independent investigation based on principled but vague notions regarding the use of intelligence." And then: "We can pull the trigger on an independent investigation of the administration's use of intelligence at any time. But we can only do so once. The best time would probably be next year."
*'DON'T AID AND ABET': "This strategy memo lays bare what we've started to see for some time: an orchestrated effort by Democrats at a time of war to improperly use an intelligence investigation as a weapon against President Bush," said Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona. "I think heads should roll," said Democratic Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia. "We're in war. You don't aid and abet the enemy. You don't inhibit or compromise intelligence in a time like this."
*PROMISE KEPT: In 1996 and 1997, President Clinton vetoed a ban on partial-birth abortion and a super-majority in the Senate fell just a few votes short of the 67 needed to override his vetoes. In 1999, the Senate passed the ban again, followed by the House in 2000. But the bill was not sent to Clinton, who had vowed a third veto.
In a ceremony at the Ronald Reagan building November 5, President Bush fulfilled a campaign promise by signing the partial-birth abortion ban. "The wide agreement amongst men and women on this issue, regardless of political party, shows that bitterness and political debate can be overcome by compassion and the power of conscience," said Bush. "The facts about partial-birth abortion are troubling and tragic and no lawyer's brief can make them seem otherwise."
*LAWYERS' BRIEFS: Less than an hour after President George W. Bush said these words, Nebraska-based U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf, who was appointed to the bench by President George H. W. Bush, issued an order staying enforcement of the partial-birth abortion ban for four doctors.
Dr. LeRoy Carhart led the physicians. Carhart, an abortionist, was the litigant in the Supreme Court case of Stenberg v. Carhart, in which the court overturned Nebraska's partial-birth abortion ban and declared the procedure a constitutional right. Also on November 5, federal judges in New York and San Francisco scheduled hearings to review challenges to the law by Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union.
*GRAHAM GOES: Having previously aborted his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Florida Sen. Bob Graham last week became the fourth Democratic senator from the South to announce his retirement in '04. While three-termer Graham was long considered a cinch for another term, the more leftist Democrats now vying to succeed him-Representatives Peter Deutsch and Alcee Hastings and former State Commissioner of Education Betty Castor-are all considered sitting ducks for a conservative Republican nominee. The three Republican candidates are all considered strong conservatives: House Speaker Johnny Byrd, State Sen. Daniel Webster, and 2000 Senate nominee Bill McCollum.
