It’s official: Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., is moving from the Senate Intelligence Committee to the Finance Committee — the first Kansan on that influential committee since Sen. Bob Dole.
As intelligence chairman, Roberts leaves a mixed record. He presided over several stormy years of partisan squabbles over prewar intelligence, CIA interrogation techniques and other hot-button issues.
He was rightly criticized at times for being an administration apologist when tough oversight was called for.
But he also helped usher in a new era in intelligence gathering with the sweeping homeland security reforms.
To be fair, this chairmanship was an enormously difficult, important challenge, and it seemed at times to take its toll on Roberts’ good humor.
As a member of the Finance Committee, Roberts is poised to have a real impact for Kansans on issues such as Medicare, Social Security and tax policy. He says he wants to implement new saving accounts for farmers to help them ride out economic dowturns.
He’s got to be glad to be off the intelligence hot seat.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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55 Comments
How about similar savings accounts for other people to hep them ride out economic downturns?
“As a member of the Finance Committee, Roberts is poised to have a real impact for Kansans on issues such as Medicare, Social Security and tax policy. He says he wants to implement new saving accounts for farmers to help them ride out economic dowturns.”READ AS:Privatize social security ANDcut farm subsidies.
Privatize Social Security??
What a GREAT idea! Well-done, Tracy!
Ben,Another fabulous idea! Here’s my suggestion:
Open a savings account. Put 10-20% of your income in it.
Now, when the economy turns south, you’ve got something to help ride it out.
Did Roberts ever finish his long awaited report on pre-war intelligence? If no, does he have to finish, or can some more credible senate committee leader do that?
Good idea golfer. Then why does Roberts need something special for farmers?
We were supposed to cut farm subsidies years ago when we signed on to NAFTA, of course we did not keep our promise, AGAIN.
Ol’ ‘memory pill’ Roberts forgot all about any oversight duties long ago.I think when he was stooped over licking Bush’s shoe leather the pills fell out of his pocket.
Ben,I’ve never been a big proponent of farm subsidies. However, keeping farmers in business helps keep the price of food low – which clearly helps lower income families.
Ehh…
SteveI thought Roberts said after the release of Phase 1 that Phase 2 would be released after the election. I got the following from Senator Rockefeller’s web site.”We have already put out three reports related to pre-war Intelligence on Iraq, and we will complete the three remaining sections of Phase 2. No decisions have been made about the timing and process going forward, but our goal has always been to tell the full story about the role of intelligence and the mistakes that were make in the lead up to the war.”Although, if Senator Johnson is unable to return to the Senator and the split is 50/50 who knows what will happen to Phase 2.For what it’s worth, I heard a rumor that Senator Roberts might be suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
“I heard a rumor that Senator Roberts might be suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.”
O, ya, how conveniant!
“I heard a rumor that Senator Roberts might be suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.”
Yes, I read where you (I think it was you) posted that the other day. I was out running around not long ago and listened to a report on NPR which said that there have been very, very few cases of a senator or representaive being removed from office due to being mentally incompetent to do the job. This report was related to the senator Tim Johnson (D – South Dakota) who recently had to undergo emergency neuro-surgery to halt bleeding on his brain. If Johnson has to retire, it is likely the Republican governor will appoint a Republican senator which would make for an even split in the senate.
Thanks for the info on the elusive Roberts phase 2 report.
delores,Sorry to be so often repeating what you have already said today. I promise to slow down and read first, post second. Hectic with the season and all…
Steven, concerning the senator who is now recovering:
From an MSNBC article about Sen. Johnson: Serious illness does not require Senator to step down
The 17th amendment of the U.S. Constitution says state legislatures can give their governors the power to appoint someone else to take over, but only in the case of “vacancies.”
What’s a vacancy? Clearly death or resignation, but history suggests not much else. Serious illness doesn’t count.
The Senate Historian’s office cites several examples of a senator being incapacitated for years and remaining in office.
Most recently, Sen. Karl Mundt (ironically, also from South Dakota) suffered a stroke in 1969 and was incapacitated, but he refused to step down. He remained in office until Jan. 1973 when his term expired. Mundt was pressured repeatedly to step down during his illness, but he demanded that the governor promise to appoint his wife. The governor refused, and Mundt remained in office.
Another example was Sen. Carter Glass, D-VA. Sen. Glass had a heart condition that prevented him from working for most of his last term after his re-election in 1942. Yet Glass refused to resign, and finally passed away from congestive heart failure in his apartment at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington DC in May of 1946.
It’s too bad they don’t have a system like that used in JoCo to choose the successor – specifically a member of the same party as who was elected in the first place.
Ben, Morrison WAS elected as a republican (in the first place).
Steven,No problem. I find I do the same thing more than I would care to admit.
Yeah, Golf, I think Ben was acknowledging that, and wishing that there were similar rules in place for the Senate, where, if Senator Johnson, a Democrat, resigns or dies, the Governor, a Republican could appoing a Republican to fill the vacancy, rather than being obliged to appoint a Democrat. But I’ll let Ben speak for himself.
That was my point golfer. I support the right of the GOP in JoCo to choose a Republican to replace an elected republican. Following in line with my support for the system that chose Kline in JoCo I would like a similar system to replace Johnson. Johnson was elected as a Democrat; allow the democratic Party to choose his replacement.
Try reading what I wrote; I was fully acknowledging the role of the Party in replacing Morrison.
Senator Johnson’s illness is a true tragedy (for the Dems).WE’RE BACK IN THE SENATE, BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
maybe …
My, fleettwood, your compassion for his family is overwhelming.
If the South Dakota voters put in a Democrat then a Democrat should replace Sen Johnson. Of course, I don’t know South Dakota’s procedures about such things as this – but if I was the governor and I wanted to keep my job – I think I would appoint a Democrat to take over.
But that would be assuming that a Republican would be putting morals over party loyalty.
I didn’t hear you, Jim Jeffords, could you say that again?ps- I don’t even know his family.
Fleet, you might want to wait to count your senators; if Johnson’s seat is not vacated due to his death or resignation, the Democrats continue to hold a 51-49 advantage; if his condition is such he cannot attend the Senate sessions, the Dems are still up 50-49, taking away the VP’s ability to vote to break ties. More relevant is the fact that as the Democrats are still in the majority, absent a vacancy filled by the Governor of South Dakota in this case, they will still control the chairs of the committees, and all that other arcane stuff that accompanies being in the majority.
As was posted above, there is nothing in the Senate rules, the Constitution or other applicable body of law and regulations that would force a disabled Senator to resign.
The voters should have voted in a Democrat Gov if that’s what they wanted. They didn’t. The state House and Senate is Repub, too.YEEE HAAWWW
I know, Vaughn. It is times like this that I wish I was religious. I don’t know who to pray to.
“Johnson is the second senator to become ill after the Nov. 7 election. Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas, a Republican, was diagnosed with leukemia on Election Day. He is back at work.”
If I were like fleettwood I would be praying for relapse and death for Thomas. I’m not. I hope he stays well.
Ben, with all due respect…
You didn’t even mention the senate in your previous post.
So Roberts is moving to the Finance Committee? But won’t he still be required to turn in that long-awaited report from the Intelligence Committee? But a better point would be – as a dutiful servant of the people – wouldn’t Roberts actually WANT to complete his Intelligence Committee’s duties before leaving?
“It’s too bad they don’t have a system like that used in JoCo to choose the successor – specifically a member of the same party as who was elected in the first place.”
Since the discussion was about how to replace a member of the Senate that should have been obvious.
Hopefully, good news …
“WASHINGTON – Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson remained in critical condition but was described as recovering and holding his wife’s hand Thursday after emergency overnight surgery to repair bleeding inside his brain.
His sudden illness had raised questions over whether the Democrats would hold their newly won slim control of the Senate.
The South Dakota lawmaker, 59, was on “an uncomplicated postoperative course,” the U.S. Capitol physician said after visiting him Thursday afternoon. Johnson suffered a hemorrhage in his brain caused by a rare and sometimes fatal condition.
“He has been appropriately responsive to both word and touch. No further surgical intervention has been required,” said the physician, Adm. John Eisold. He had said earlier, “The senator is recovering without complication.”
Johnson was responding to the voice of his wife, Barbara, and following directions after the surgery, the senator’s office said in a statement. “He was reaching for and holding her hand.”"
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/breaking_news/16232626.htm
Oh, how soon we forget. How many DECADES was Strom Thurmond in the Senate, and couldn’t remember which one of the pesky Southern states he was from ??
God forbid anything happening to Pat Roberts — when it comes to Kansas Senators, at least he’s the pick of the litter!
So true, rm, oh so true.
fleettwood,
My. You really are repellant.
But you might want to put that…thing back in your trousers: Tim Johnson isn’t going ANYWHERE.
If the Senate GOP hacks could claim that Terry Schaivo was just ‘differently abled’ rather than ‘brain dead,’ I see no reason for Senator Johnson to resign his seat.
Seriously. As long as he has a pulse, he ought to stay right where he is. Let the Republicans scream as loud as they want. And from the way it sounds, odds are that he’ll be back to work in a couple of months.
Even better: there’s no legal mechanism for removing Johnson from his seat. As long as he has a pulse, he has a seat.
http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2006/12/johnson-able-to-retain-senate-seat.html
Senators Leahey, Levin, Biden, Lieberman: start your investigative engines…
Speaking of Roberts and the failures of the Intelligence while he was chairman, check out this-
http://kansasmod.blogspot.com/
Roberts is done. Can anyone say Senator Sebelius?
cf-I hope he recovers. God speed.
They could wheel him in for important votes. One beep for aye, two for nay. (Captain Pike in that Star Trek episode)
I wish Senator Johnson a quick and complete recovery. It seems somehow inappropriate, this speculation of the political implications of his illness practically before he is out of surgery.
And I kept waiting for some leftist wacko to call it suspicious. That Karl Rove had poisoned him or something. Glad it turn out to be a congenital anomaly.
I saw that episode just a few day ago. He was messed up.
“Senator Johnson’s illness is a true tragedy (for the Dems).WE’RE BACK IN THE SENATE, BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YEEE HAAWWW
Posted by: fleettwood | December 14, 2006 at 03:54 PM
I know, Vaughn. It is times like this that I wish I was religious. I don’t know who to pray to.
cf-I hope he recovers. God speed.”
Gee, fleettwood, your flip-flop seems a bit insincere.
Republicans only rallied for Terry Schiavo to get the stupid voters to vote for them again. But, seriously, Sen Tim Johnson should not resign. After all, there is plenty of precedent making that very possible. Republicans don’t like it but why would I care?
Tim Johnson was a pretty good man, as far as I know. I wish him well. I have great faith in the American people, we can get the Senate back without hoping for a tragic absence in the democrats.
As far as Strom Thurman goes, he was old, but he was still pretty sharp. I had the honor of speaking with him at a fund raiser. A delightful man, good sense of humor and still had a quick mind.
Hank
Oh, he was 97 when I got to talk with him.
May he have a speedy recovery and all is well. May God bless him.
The tragedy would be if we had to depend on Dick Cheney to break any ties within the Senate. Geez, I wonder which he will go?
Many with Johnson’s type of malady recover completely.
I heard a rumble today that if he did not, his wife might serve his term.
J R – do you think the GOP governor would appoint his wife?
Did you catch the tone of Randy “The Liberal” Blogger’s tone–”it was a tough job, but Pat Roberts met the challenge.”
That’s like saying that the Carr Brothers had good “people skills.”
Impeachment is not good enough for this Bush shill. Under his leadership, the Senate Intelligence Committee not only utterly failed to fufill their oversight functions, they actively stifled, stymied, and stone-walled the people that wanted straight answers.
“The Iraqi threat to our country is grave. The Iraqi threat to our country is growing.”
High crimes and misdemeanors?
Oh yes, hell yes.
I bet that if Johnson does have to leave his position, one of the moderate republicans OR the independent Lieberman will switch over to dem side.
And if the governor does replace the guy with a very conservative repub…hey, we’ll remember that. Remember sometimes Karma is a bitch.
Time’s Person of the Year should be the Republican Party
Brent Budwosky
The President, with approval from Republicans in Congress, misrepresented intelligence to drive our country to war, with fear, while the Republicans in Congress, protecting him, covered up the report that would expose it.
The President, ignoring the advice of generals and demeaning those who courageously tried to warn us, with support and silence by the Republicans in Congress, approved a war plan that began with grotesque miscalculation, wasconducted with war on the cheap, used troops like the toy soldiers of ideologues. and risked their safety as the petty cash of their partisan politics.
The President, cheered by the throngs of the one party Republican Congress, instituted an Iraq Reconstruction with the Proconsul he named, staffed that Reconstruction with Republican campaign operatives, stiffed that Reconstruction with war profiteers of gargantuan greed, who stuffed their pockets with taxpayers money while our troops shed their blood in patriotism, and the Republican Congress shed their responsibility for oversight, one of the great derelictions of duty in history.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/
If Tim can’t complete his turn,they should bring his Son in to do it.Let the Son choose which party.Nuff’ said.
I doubt Roberts has escaped anything when the truth comes out, he’ll be back in the hot seat!
pmom-When Jim Jeffords switched partys to deny the Repubs the majority, the Karma was started.May Sen. Johnson get well soon.
“God forbid anything happening to Pat Roberts — when it comes to Kansas Senators, at least he’s the pick of the litter!”
Meaning they are both dogs — neither feels compelled to be accountable to their Kansas Constituents or to be leaders in the Senate — they are part of the political hack system our country has embraced and made us a laughing stock of the world …..
One thing this country needs is less pork, just because Roberts becomes the head pig farmer is no reason to put him in the job.The headline should have read ” Robert hopes to escape the Senate Intelligence Committe failures during his tenure as head committee plumber.