{"id":5906,"date":"2005-11-22T12:55:38","date_gmt":"2005-11-22T17:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=5906"},"modified":"2005-11-22T12:55:38","modified_gmt":"2005-11-22T17:55:38","slug":"i-can-think-of-a-couple-of-questions-to-ask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/i-can-think-of-a-couple-of-questions-to-ask\/","title":{"rendered":"I can think of a couple of questions to ask…"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s encouraging to see at least a couple of Republican senators agree with Dems that top-ranking administration officials should be compelled to answer questions<\/a> about what they told the nation before the war.<\/p>\n

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has emerged as a leading opponent of the Bush administration’s policy on interrogating detainees in the war on terrorism, wants Senate investigators to interview senior administration officials about their statements regarding the threat posed by Saddam Hussein before the war.<\/p>\n

McCain backed Democratic calls for interviews of top-level administration officials in an interview last week. But his position is at odds with many in his party, including Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), whom McCain may face in the 2008 GOP presidential primary. […]<\/p>\n

So far at least one other Republican, Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), who is also facing a difficult race next year, is siding with McCain.<\/p>\n

“Why not come in and defend what you say?” said Chafee. “I agree with McCain.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is reportedly on the fence and may end up joining them.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we’re not talking about the top two constitutional officers. McCain said lawmakers should hear from everyone “that was involved,” including cabinet secretaries (cough, Rumsfeld, cough), but he said Bush and Cheney should be exempted.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, this is a shot in the arm for Senate Democrats, who’ve demanded an evaluation of pre-invasion statements. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wants top officials “interviewed,” but Pat Roberts has been slow to respond. McCain’s support should be helpful in keeping the pressure on.<\/p>\n

Of course, if those “interviews” ever happen, there’ll be no shortage of administration statements<\/a> that will need “clarification.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s encouraging to see at least a couple of Republican senators agree with Dems that top-ranking administration officials should be compelled to answer questions about what they told the nation before the war. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has emerged as a leading opponent of the Bush administration’s policy on interrogating detainees in the war […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}