Guest editorial: Apology needed on memo

  • Scripps Howard News Service
  • Posted November 11, 2003 at midnight
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was set up as a strictly nonpartisan, out-of-the-ordinary operation with Republican and Democratic co-chairmen being co-equal. There was good reason for attempting to veer away from politics as usual, in short, that the committee would lose its effectiveness in intelligence oversight if it came to appear that access to classified information was being used for electoral ends.

It's therefore a shame that a Democratic Senate staffer drafted a memo on how to use a committee probe into U.S. intelligence to damage the administration. It is a worse shame that some Democratic senators on the committee seem to think this memo is no big deal. Their response has been that the chief affront was to disclose the memo, thereby signifying that they are deep into their partisan purposes.

The committee seems likely to limp along for a while as Republicans ask themselves whether a restructuring is in order. Perhaps the two sides can come to an understanding that will reaffirm the old bipartisanship and keep the old structure intact, the best solution. The Republicans might need to give some on some prior positions, but the Democrats especially need to apologize for a plan that erodes the credibility of an institutional check on executive power and that thereby hurts the country.

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