Senate Democrats force closed session on Iraq data

Democrats surprised Republicans by forcing the Senate into closed session yesterday to raise the profile of prewar intelligence failures related to Iraq and last week’s indictment of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff.

Eh? Reality check in order?

“The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really all about, how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said, moments before he and his top lieutenant forced the closed session.

Dusty Harry Ried et al have managed to cook up a grandstanding play, which ultimately accomplished nothing – the GOP had been working on this stuff for 15 months, and had already scheduled the meeting that Ried claimed to have wrung out of them. I guess he needed to do something to get his name back into the news cycle.

When the doors opened two hours later, Democrats said they got what they wanted because Republicans agreed to hold intelligence committee meetings and finish a report on prewar intelligence. Republicans said they didn’t give up anything because the plan to hold a meeting next week had been made before the session. By yesterday evening, the Senate was back debating budget cuts.

So what in the world do the Donks think they accomplished here? There isn’t anything the Chief can see, except for jabbing the eyes of GOP Senate Intel Committee Chair Roberts.

“If that’s not politics, I’m not standing here,” said Sen. Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The Kansas Republican said Democrats on the committee tipped their hand last year when a staff memo surfaced that they intended to exhaust the bipartisan process and then “pull the trigger” to demand an independent investigation sometime this year.