Democrats Push for More Intelligence Reform
December 10, 2004
In a sign of unity, the Democratic party today called for more intelligence reform. Numerous Democrats publicly made comments regarding the need for further intelligence reform in addition to the bill recently passed by the House and the Senate.
"The intelligence reform passed was significant, but this country needs real intelligence reform in the Executive branch," said Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.
"The office of the Executive has had intelligence problems for years. The failure to employ, utilize and simply possess intelligence has placed this country at grave peril," said out-going Senate minority leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota. "We need to take corrective action in order to protect our nation," he added.
"This country has been plagued by misrepresentations, miscalculations and infamous malapropisms for the past four years. We need to establish intelligence standards for the Executive office so that our nation is not besieged by such embarrassment ever again," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, a California Democrat.
The Democrats declined to state specifically the target of their criticisms, but the comments are clearly aimed at President Bush. Among the specific proposals are intelligence standards for those holding office in the Executive branch and for White House appointees.
Republicans responded by saying that the Democrats are simply "poor losers" and "elitists."
"They couldn’t win the election, so now they are trying to affect the results," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D., Republican of Tennessee.
"This is clearly a partisan attempt to push the agenda of the intellectual elitists, who are out of touch with the average American," said Senator Rick Santorum, a Republican of Pennsylvania.
"We have government appointees disseminating information that is false, misleading or distorted," said Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, whose House Government Reform Committee recently released a report critical of conservative, government-sponsored abstinence programs. "We need intelligence reform before more of our children are lead to believe that condoms are not scientifically proven effective," he added. Such abstinence programs are slated to receive 170 million in funding over the next year.*
reported in jest by John Eischeid
*The government really is spreading misinformation regarding
sex and
its associated risks, and it really has pledged 170 million in taxpayer
money to help accomplish this goal: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT