December 19, 2005
Obsessed With 16 Words
By Robert
Novak
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The House International Relations Committee
last Thursday voted 24 to 19 to send to the House floor, "without
recommendation," a resolution requiring President Bush to
turn over documents relating to 16 words in his 2003 State of
the Union Address. That actually killed the resolution. But the
dead can rise again in Congress, and this corpse will.
Thursday's
vote marked the ninth time that Democrats had brought this matter
before the International Relations Committee without success,
and it will not be the last time. Democrats are obsessed with
the president's 16 words on Jan. 28, 2003, that reported British
intelligence saying Iraq sought uranium from Africa. This is the
cutting edge of the Democratic contention that George W. Bush
lied his country into war.
Partisan
warfare in the House of Representatives is encouraged by heightened
Democratic hopes of winning control of the chamber for the first
time since 1994. Repeated introduction in the International Relations
and Armed Services committees of resolutions hectoring the president
about the 2003 speech is intended to focus antiwar resentment
against Bush and the Republicans.
The president's
trouble began with this statement: "The British government
has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities
of uranium from Africa." To investigate this, the CIA dispatched
former Ambassador Joseph Wilson to Niger. When I quoted administration
sources as saying Wilson's CIA employee wife suggested this mission,
an investigation by a special prosecutor was launched and Democrats
alleged there was a plot to hide the truth about going to war.
The latest
form of their effort was a "privileged" resolution introduced
by Rep. Maurice Hinchey of New York calling on the president to
give the House "all documents in his possession" relating
to both the 2003 State of the Union and an Oct. 7, 2002, speech
delivered in Cincinnati. The reason for requesting material from
the earlier speech was to show that at Cincinnati the president
did not mention yellow cake uranium (used to produce nuclear weapons)
because the CIA allegedly had told him there was no truth to the
claim. The implication is that Bush four months later brought
up the uranium-hunt story to build support for war.
Under the
rules of the House, the Republicans cannot simply ignore a "privileged"
resolution. That would enable the resolution's sponsors to bring
it up on the House floor. Paradoxically, such resolutions must
be voted on in committee to keep them off the floor.
The Hinchey
resolution was debated for two hours by the International Relations
Committee on Dec. 8. Rep. Brad Sherman of California amended it
to make sure it would apply only to presidential documents "relevant
to Iraq" and then misquoted Bush by telling his colleagues:
"I think what we are trying simply to do is let the American
people decide for themselves. ... Find out what happened when
our president said that Niger had the uranium things that caused
this whole debate."
One problem
with the Democratic attack is that in July 2004, the Senate Intelligence
Committee reported that the intelligence community agreed that
"Iraq was attempting to procure uranium from Africa."
Other than Sherman, committee members had little to say about
the famous 16 words.
The other
Democrats used their time to attack the Republican president and
the Republican majority in Congress. "Nine times," said
veteran Rep. Gary Ackerman of New York, "this Republican
majority has whitewashed the Republican administration's lying
to the American people." Chairman Henry Hyde responded by
reading Ackerman's floor speech of Oct. 8, 2002, asserting, "We
know al-Qaida elements have already been at work soliciting Iraqi
aid in this field."
The vote
on Oct. 8 was on a motion to report "adversely" the
Hinchey resolution. Rep. James Leach of Iowa, the committee's
second-ranking Republican and a critic of the Iraq intervention,
voted "no," and two other Republicans did not vote.
As a result, the vote failed 24 to 24.
The resolution
was brought up again in committee last Thursday, this time to
be reported "without recommendation." Leach passed his
vote, and with several absentees, the motion carried, meaning
the resolution was dead for now. Democrats are sure to try again
in a campaign that may not be serious, but is persistent.
Copyright
2005 Creators Syndicate
