As was starting to come out on the Sunday talk shows, the Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee have introduced their own
plan to radically alter the government's intelligence gathering organizations. Instead of going with the administration's recommendation of some sort of weak advisor that won't have an office in the White House (or I presume be part of the NSC), Senate Goopers want a strong Intelligence Czar who has control over the primary functions of the CIA, the DIA and the NSA. While the merits of the plan have yet to be parsed, the interesting thing is the way this was introduced and what the reaction has been.
First and foremost, the White House did not know the details of the plan, and had no idea it would differ so dramatically from the administration's plan. Second, Senate Democrats had no idea about the details either. Carl Levin said any purely partisan legislation over these issues, no matter what it contains, is a bad idea. I think it would be a bad move to oppose it, though. Instead they should claim that this legislation is remarkably similar to their own outlines for a bill, and wholeheartedly support it. They should claim it as their own, because Kerry's campaign has actually hailed the legislation, acknowledged that the Senate Dems needed to be let in on it, and said that the plan is very close to Kerry's plan.
What does this all mean? Well, my hope was that the Senate Republicans were indicating that they had no faith in the President's war on terra, and that following his plan would put some of the committee members in jeopardy. But then I looked at who is on the committee, and the only Republican who is even up for re-election is Kit Bond, who has a commanding lead in the polls despite my donation (don't forget the .01).
Still, it is likely that this will shortly come up for a vote before the whole Senate, so this is undoubtedly a move to allow threatened Goopers to take a strong stance on terrorism. The rest of the GOP can vote against it at the Preznit's behest, along with Democratic Senators who weren't included in the bill. Then the Preznit doesn't have to take the embarrassing step of vetoing it in favor of his Weak Advisor plan. The Democrats could force this by supporting the bill. Of course the House could throw a whole new wrench into the works, I suppose.
Kerry has probably played this as well as he can. By supporting it, he can blame the President for shooting it down when it fails to pass the Senate. Or he can call the President a flip-flopper if he ever signs it.
I'm sure Mr. Rove is not happy about this in the slightest. He has lost his iron grip on all party members, who have seen the necessity of parting ways with the President on major issues if they want some of their members to be reelected.