McCain Joins the Counterattack
On Face the Nation today:
SCHIEFFER: President Bush accused his critics of rewriting history last week.
Sen. McCAIN: Yeah.
SCHIEFFER: And in–he said in doing so, the criticisms they were making of his war policy was endangering our troops in Iraq. Do you believe it is unpatriotic to criticize the Iraq policy?
Sen. McCAIN: No, I think it’s a very legitimate aspect of American life to criticize and to disagree and to debate. But I want to say I think it’s a lie to say that the president lied to the American people. I sat on the Robb-Silverman Commission. I saw many, many analysts that came before that committee. I asked every one of them–I said, `Did–were you ever pressured politically or any other way to change your analysis of the situation as you saw?’ Every one of them said no.
Regarding the Democratic calls for more investigations into the preamble to war – as Bush said in another context, bring it on. We have nothing to fear, and there’s no need to act like it…
Sen. Rockefeller is now saying that the Silberman-Robb commission was biased because it was appointed by the president. I wonder what Chuck Robb, Rockefeller’s former colleague and fellow Democrat, feels about being implicated in a right-wing whitewash.