Intel Reform: Did Bush Push Hard?

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By Michael Isikoff and Eleanor Clift
NewsweekDec. 6 issue - The White House publicly bemoaned Congress's failure to pass a sweeping measure to overhaul the U.S. intelligence community—a top 9/11 Commission recommendation—and said it would press to revive the bill soon. But behind the scenes, the White House's support has been less than vigorous, reflecting ambivalence on the part of many in the administration, especially the Pentagon, about the idea of creating an all-powerful new intelligence czar.




Aides said President George W. Bush, while on Air Force One on his way to Chile, called one of the two principal congressional holdouts—House judiciary committee chairman Jim Sensenbrenner—in an effort to break the legislative logjam. But Sensenbrenner tells NEWSWEEK that Bush was "extremely low-key" during their conversation and never pressured him. ("He knows that arm-twisting with me ... is not the way to go," he adds.) After their phone chat, Bush authorized a White House aide to push for one of Sensenbrenner's pet proposals to make it more difficult for foreigners to claim political asylum. When Senate negotiators balked, Sensenbrenner stood his ground. A few days later, Sensenbrenner met with Vice President Dick Cheney for a prearranged meeting about legislative priorities for next year, and the veep never even raised intel reform. Sensenbrenner says he brought up the subject, and then explained to Cheney why the bill went south. Cheney, who has a "mind like a steel trap," just listened, he says.

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But the effort is likely to fail unless the White House gets more serious, says another panel member, Tim Roemer. "It's going to take a lot more than two phone calls. You have to use the bully pulpit," he says. White House aides acknowledge resistance from the Pentagon; some were furious last week at Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for seeming to endorse concerns that reform could interfere with "chain of command" decisions by combat commanders.

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Maybe this is why Rumsfeld is feeling the heat!!!

How long did it take to pass the "Patriot Act"?

This is all an elaborate dog-and-pony show to convince us that the
political leadership actually gives a shit what the 9/11 commission
had to say.

I mean does anybody know what is going on the Plame case!!!

I can see the major movers of getting rid of the CIA were the ones who revealed and outed PLAME

No Dah!!!

won't support their push for war with Iran.