Dems. to hold Iraq hearings today -- because GOP won't

[rodeodance]

CSPAN3 beginning about 10:30am]
Monday, September 25, 2006

Dems. to hold Iraq hearings today -- because GOP won't
by Joe in DC - 9/25/2006 10:33:00 AM

The Republicans in Congress have never challenged Bush's failed Iraq policy. Now we know from the latest National Intelligence Estimate that the Bush/GOP Iraq policy has made the world a more dangerous place.

The Republicans won't hold oversight hearings on Iraq. But, today, the Democrats will:

Retired military officers on Monday are expected to bluntly accuse Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld of bungling the war in Iraq, saying U.S. troops were sent to fight without the best equipment and that critical facts were hidden from the public.

"I believe that Secretary Rumsfeld and others in the administration did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq," retired Maj. Gen. John R. S. Batiste said in remarks prepared for a hearing by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.

A second witness, retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, is expected to assess Rumsfeld as "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically ...."

"Mr. Rumsfeld and his immediate team must be replaced or we will see two more years of extraordinarily bad decision-making," said his testimony prepared for the hearing, to be held six weeks before the Nov. 7 midterm elections in which the war is a central issue.

The conflict, now in its fourth year, has claimed the lives of more than 2,600 American troops and cost more than $300 billion.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., the committee chairman, told reporters last week that he hoped the hearing would shed light on the planning and conduct of the war. He said majority Republicans had failed to conduct hearings on the issue, adding, "if they won't ... we will."

It's no wonder the GOP won't hold hearings. The Iraq war is a disaster.

The hearings will be webcast on the Democratic Policy Committee's website at 1:30 pm. The cable networks have covered just about every single one of Bush's political terror speeches lately. We now know that he's been lying about national security in all of them. Let's see if they cover any of this hearing which challenges Bush's Iraq policy.

Comment s (23) | Permanent Link |

[gratuitous]

1. I think this is a terrific idea

I wonder, though, if the Majority Leader won't suddenly remember some urgent piece of business the Senate needs to conduct at around 1:35 which will call every Senator back to the floor, and if the Democrats have made a contingency plan for such an eventuality?

And if all the Senators have to leave, will C-Span feel obliged to keep the cameras rolling?