Can the Democrats do this? What never used rule are they talking about? [View All]

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/02/wbush02.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/11/02/ixportaltop.html

Democrats open second front against Bush in war over Iraqi secrets

Top Democrats in Congress are planning a second, "independent" investigation into the role of the White House and the Pentagon in processing pre-war intelligence on Iraq. snip

"We want to know whether the administration put pressure on the agencies to come up with certain kinds of information. It's the very question that has been explored at great length in Britain at the Hutton Inquiry," he told The Telegraph.

"If the Republican leadership of the Senate Intelligence Committee is determined to protect the administration at any cost, we'll do the investigative job on our own."

The inquiry, under a rule never evoked before, would have legal powers to demand documents and summon witnesses from within the administration, potentially leading to high-ranking confrontations with top Bush officials.

more