Demos Lied, Soldiers Died

Senator Jay Rockefeller, then the ranking minority member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said:

“There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons. And will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years.”

Senator Evan Bayh, then a ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said:

“I support the president's efforts to disarm Saddam Hussein. I think he was right on in his speech tonight. The lessons we learned following September 11 were that we can't wait to be attacked again, particularly when it involves weapons of mass destruction. So regrettably, Saddam has not done the right thing, which is to disarm, and we're left with no alternative but to take action.”

Senator Dick Durbin, then a ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, today one of the dimmer bulbs in the 100-lamp chandelier:

“I was a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and I would read the headlines in the paper in the morning and I'd watch the television newscast and I'd shake my head. …[T]he information we had in the Intelligence Committee was not the same information being given to the American people. I couldn't believe it.

***

“And so in my frustration, I sat here on the floor of the Senate and listened to this heated debate about invading Iraq thinking the American people are being misled. They are not being told the truth.”

***

“You see, in the Intelligence Committee, we're sworn to secrecy. We can't walk outside the door and say, ‘The statement made yesterday by the White House is in direct contradiction to classified information that's being given to this Congress."

In a never-ending search for truth, Honest Dick Durbin turns in those liars Bayh and Rockefeller.

This will make for an interesting conversation around the Senate coffee machine.

H/T to NRO