A day doesn’t seem to go by without Senator Levin spoon-feeding a story to the New York Times or the Washington Post that targets the Bush administration. The latest was Douglas Jehl’s piece, “Report Warned Bush Team About Intelligence,” in Sunday’s New York Times (Steve Hayes challenges the substance of the Jehl piece here). Apparently, Levin and Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller reviewed a classified Defense Intelligence Agency document from February 2002 and liked what they read in two particular paragraphs. They asked the DIA to declassify the two paragraphs and eight days later — which must be close to record time — the Agency did just that. A few questions come to mind reading the Jehl piece: 1. Have any Republicans read this document? 2. What’s the reason Levin and Rockefeller requested only those two paragraphs for declassification? Are there any other paragraphs that may be of interest to Americans? 3. Have any Republicans read other documents or reports that may contain paragraphs of interest to Americans? 4. If so, have requests been made to the appropriate agency for declassification and how long has it taken to get an answer? 5. How many requests for declassification have been rejected? 6. What about page 66 of the 9-11 report? Finally, as William Kristol has wondered, do Republicans actually enjoy being “punching bags” for liberal Democrats?
