The importance of the Senate Intelligence Committee requires that its members be not merely bipartisan, but completely apartisan regarding its business.  The safety and security of not only all American citizens, but of all our soldiers in the field rest upon the Committee's ability to oversee the CIA and intelligence-gathering operations in such a way as to put all politics aside, keeping the security of the nation foremost in the minds of its members.  Serving on the Committee is, to put it bluntly, a duty that should never be tainted by the stink of partisan politics.

Well, it stinks now.

FOX news recently acquired a copy of a memo from Vice Chairman of the Committee Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va), apparently meant for the other Democrats on the Committee.  The full text of the memo can be found at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102258,00.html.  At first, Rockefeller claimed it was written by a staffer, then later revealed it was written at his direction.  Not only has he not denounced its contents, neither have the other Democrats.  Any of them. (Except Zell Miller (D-Ga), who said, "Heads should roll".)  This memo clearly shows the existence of a Democratic plot to use the power of the Senate Intelligence Committee as a political tool to undermine the credibility of the President and Commander-in-Chief while American troops are fighting a war.

It reveals a plan to push Republicans into revealing as much as possible about how the CIA's intelligence was used to form the conclusion that war in Iraq was necessary.  Pull the majority along as far as we can on issues that may lead to major new disclosures regarding improper or questionable conduct by administration officials. 

Following that, the Democrats plan to insert their pre-written conclusions about the necessity for the war into any reports the Committee as a whole may issue.  Assiduously prepare Democratic "additional views" to attach to any interim or final reports the committee may release. Committee rules provide this opportunity and we intend to take full advantage of it. 

After that, they plan to force the creation of an independent commission to investigate the Administration starting with the "dubious motives and methods" that they themseves will have exaggerated the reports (by including their pre-written additions) to show.  Our additional views will also, among other things, castigate the majority for seeking to limit the scope of the inquiry. The Democrats will then be in a strong position to reopen the question of establishing an independent commission. 

Their plan is to do this next year, timed in such a way as to cause the most damage to President Bush's re-election campaign.  We can pull the trigger on an independent investigation at any time -- but we can only do so once. The best time to do so will probably be next year... We could attract more coverage and have greater credibility in that context than one in which we simply launch an independent investigation based on principled but vague notions regarding the "use" of intelligence.

To the Democrats thus entrusted with the lives and safety of Americans at home and abroad, nothing is more important than finding a way to use their public trust to attack President Bush.  Intelligence issues are clearly secondary to the public's concern regarding the insurgency in Iraq.

The memo even clearly reveals that this foul strategy has already been followed.  Remember the big investigation into the Iraq-Niger uranium deal?  The FBI investigation was initiated by Jay Rockefeller, supposedly to "allay concerns" that the US government was involved in the forgery of the documents the British bought from Italian intelligence.  Now we know the true reason why... it was part of the overall Democrat campaign to undermine President Bush's credibility.  For example, the FBI Niger investigation was done solely at the request of the vice chairman...

If we don't see Rockefeller stepping down from his position on the Committee -- if not resigning from the Senate altogether -- within a week, then we'll know the Democrats still plan to use whatever they can to attack the President's credibility in any way they can.  The important questions are: how can we insure the impartiality of the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee in the future... and how do we make certain that our CIA and FBI are not being used as tools of partisan politics?