After Missing 50% of Intel Hearings, DeWine Speculates on Iraq

AMHERST, OH - Continuing a trend of election-year conversions, incumbent Republican Senator DeWine yesterday speculated there may be troop drawdowns from Iraq over the next two years but offered no specifics [Vindicator 10/4/06].  Two days earlier, Senator DeWine was insistent our troops must stay in Iraq without any plans to end the war while Congressman Sherrod Brown again called for military leaders to prepare a plan for troop redeployment [Meet the Press 10/1/06].  DeWine also followed Brown's lead by declaring he has "no confidence" in Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, but failed to call for Rumsfeld's resignation.
 
DeWine failed to exert his oversight authority over the Bush administration by missing nearly 50 percent of the public meetings of the Intelligence Committee during his career and dismissing a report on terrorist threats to the United States.
 
"Senator DeWine abdicated his oversight responsibility a long time ago," said U.S. Representative Sherrod Brown (D-OH). "Now he's simply grasping at straws.  Instead of speculating about what may happen in Iraq, Senator DeWine should hold the administration accountable for its failed Iraq strategy."
 
DeWine missed nearly 50 percent of the public meetings of the Intelligence Committee, including years of critical meetings before 9/11.  According to the Plain Dealer, "DeWine missed sessions where then-CIA Director George Tenet and other intelligence authorities testified, and where worldwide security threats, international terrorism, counterintelligence threats at the nation's nuclear laboratories and nominations to intelligence agencies were discussed, records show" [10/4/06].
 
The Plain Dealer article is available here: LINK
 
Last week, DeWine dismissed an intelligence report in which 16 of the administration's intelligence agencies concluded that the war in Iraq was mobilizing jihadists and increasing the terrorist threat to the United States saying it was of "no great significance" [Plain Dealer 9/28/06].
 
DeWine voted more than 90 percent of the time with the Bush administration and supports the president's stay-the-course Iraq strategy.  He supported the president in sending troops into battle based on false intelligence and voted against investigating the false intelligence that led our troops into battle.  DeWine made claims about the presence of weapons of mass destruction before the war.  According to the Toledo Blade, "[DeWine] repeated his insistence that Saddam Hussein has chemical and biological weapons and is trying to get nuclear weapons. He refused to be specific, saying, ‘A lot of this stuff is classified.'"  [Toledo Blade, 7/10/02]
 
"When our troops are on the line, Ohioans expect their Senator to show up for duty and ensure that defense leaders are executing a winning strategy," stated Brown.  "Our first priority should be refocusing our efforts on the War on Terror, rooting out al Qaeda, and catching Osama bin Laden."

10/04/2006 / Permalink / National Security, (all tags)