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Secret session riles Senate Republicans

BY GLENN THRUSH | WASHINGTON BUREAU; Staff writers Timothy M. Phelps and Craig Gordon contributed to this story.

November 2, 2005

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats staged a stunning parliamentary ambush yesterday, using the "closed session" rule to force enraged GOP leaders into moving ahead with a long-delayed probe into possible manipulation of prewar intelligence.

Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) rocked the sedate upper house around 2:30 p.m. by suddenly invoking his right to shutter Senate doors to outsiders.

The move, which halted business for two hours, had previously been used only to discuss state secrets and impeachment briefings, according to Senate historians.

Reid, backed by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), defended his extraordinary step by saying it was the only way to force Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) into producing a report detailing Bush administration intelligence deliberations.

"I demand on behalf of the American people that we understand why these investigations aren't being conducted," said Reid, who had been demanding release of the so-called "Phase II" report since last year.

Invoking last week's indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Reid accused congressional Republicans of failing to investigate White House abuses.

They "have repeatedly chosen to protect the Republican administration rather than get to the bottom of what happened and why," he said.

GOP leaders, whose 55-to-45 majority usually gives them carte blanche in the Senate, were caught completely off guard. So were the handful of tourists ushered from the chamber as the lights were dimmed.

"The United States Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership," said a livid Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). "They have no convictions, they have no principles, they have no ideas."

In a sign of deteriorating relations ahead of the 2006 midterm elections, Frist said the move made him "unable to trust Sen. Reid for the next year and half."

The impasse was broken two hours later when Frist agreed to create a six-member bipartisan panel to issue a report on the matter by Nov. 14.

Soon after, Intelligence chairman Roberts told reporters the panel was "irrelevant" and that he would hold hearings all of next week, with the goal of releasing the report soon.

"We've been ready since May," said Roberts, who blamed Democrats for bottling up the report by failing to wade through reams of documents necessary to complete the probe. "That's hard work and they flat don't want to do it," he added.

Still, he cited two possible roadblocks: the half-done job of analyzing more than 500 prewar intelligence claims and probing the role played by Douglas Feith, the former undersecretary of defense for policy who pushed vigorously for an invasion of Iraq based on flawed intelligence.

Reid's high-profile move may have soured relations across the aisle, but it has forced the Senate to address its unfinished business on Iraq, analysts said.

"While Sen. Frist is spitting on Reid and the Democrats, Reid has just successfully focused the spotlight back on Iraq," wrote blogger Steven Clemons of the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan Washington think tank.

In July 2004, an Intelligence Committee report blamed the CIA and other intelligence agencies for passing on information that Iraq had active chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.

Reid hatched the plan during a Halloween night Capitol Hill meeting with Schumer, Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).

At one point, Reid sought parliamentary advice from one of his staff lawyers, tracking the man down as he escorted his children on a trick-or-treating run, a source familiar with the meeting said.

1) QUOTE OF THE DAY: 'They have no convictions, they have no principles, they have no ideas.' - Majority Leader Bill Frist about Democrats using a rule to force GOP leaders into moving ahead with a probe into prewar intelligence

2) I demand on behalf of the American people that we understand why these investigations aren't being conducted.' - Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) 3)

The United States Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership. - Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.)