Democrats forced the U.S. Senate into a rare closed session to discuss the Bush administrationís handling of intelligence dealing with weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the AP reports.
In a floor statement on "a stalled Congressional probe into pre-war intelligence," Hotline On Call reports Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said, "Our troops have sacrified too much. I demand on behalf of the American people that we understand why these investigations aren't happening."
"Reid then invoked Senate Rule 21, which permits the minority leader to call for a closed session. It was seconded by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). The timing was precise and deliberate. If Sen. Bill Frist, the majority leader, had been on the floor, he could have objected, but since he was not in the chambers, the presiding officer of the Senate had to agree to Reid's invocation."
It takes a majority of senators to undo the rule. Republicans are reported to be furious, with Frist calling it a "political stunt." Frist continued, "It means, for now on, for the next year and a half, I can't trust Sen. Reid."
Late last week, we highlighted a report that Vice President Dick Cheney and Scooter Libby decided to withhold crucial documents from the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2004 when the panel was investigating the use of pre-war intelligence. You can be pretty sure they're talking about that.
Update: "The closed session lasted a little more than two hours before Republicans mustered a vote to resume meeting in open session," the Washington Post reports.
Senate majority leader Bill Frist (R-TN) "said in a floor speech after the open session resumed that he and the Democrats had agreed to form a bipartisan committee of six senators to report on progress by the Senate Intelligence Committee in reviewing prewar intelligence."
Update II: Hotline On Call says we were correct about the Cheney/Libby article from last week. "A footnote: several Democratic aides tell us that Sen. Reid and Sen. Jay Rockefeller decided on today's tactic after reading Murray Waas's account on NationalJournal.com of how senior members of Vice President Cheney's staff, including Scooter Libby, may have intentionally withheld crucial documents from the Senate staff."
