Former Democratic Congressman, Jim Slattery, has officially jumped in the 2008 U.S. Senate race to take on GOP incumbent and loyal Bushie, Pat Roberts. Slattery is holding his own in the polls thus far in the race, keeping Roberts from breaking the 50% mark, which is stunning in a state that votes overwhelmingly Republican. The release of the Phase 2 report on prewar Iraq intelligence has given Slattery an opening to attack Roberts that's big enough to drive a train through. Proving he's ready to take the fight to to his opponent, Slattery wasted no time calling Roberts out for his role in covering up the lies of the Bush administration during the run up to the invasion of Iraq:
After a nearly four-year investigation, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence today released their final phase II report on prewar Iraq intelligence.
The report outlines many prewar statements made by members of the Bush Administration that according to the report "misrepresented the intelligence and threat from Iraq."
Jim Slattery, candidate for the United States Senate, criticized the federal government.
"It is unconscionable that top government officials would willfully mischaracterize the intelligence to drum up support for a war," Slattery said. "This is the worst kind of incompetence on the part of the federal government."
While the report details the failures of the Bush Administration and the intelligence community, Slattery said the Senate Intelligence Committee should also be held responsible for their lack of oversight.
"While this report is helpful in providing more evidence about what went wrong in the lead up to war in Iraq, it's not fair to place blame solely on the Administration."
Senator Pat Roberts was the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2002-2003, during the lead-up to the war in Iraq. As ranking member and then chairman, Roberts duty was to provide "vigilant legislative oversight over the intelligence activities of the United States."
Visit Jim Slattery's campaign website, learn more about him, his campaign and donate if you can. We need to pick up every available seat in the Senate for a clear majority -- and the 50 state strategy is still in play.
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"Sadly, Roberts failed our country when it mattered most," Slattery said. "Both Republicans and Democrats on the Intelligence Committee were negligent in their responsibility to question the intelligence community and the Administration about their justifications for pre-emptive war.
"Why didn't Roberts' tell the American people there were serious doubts about the reliability of the intelligence and that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9-11? Why didn't he raise objections when Administration officials portrayed an open-and-shut case that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons and working with al Qaeda?
"As the top Republican on the committee he certainly should have known the intelligence didn't support these claims."
For three years Roberts repeatedly delayed the publication of the report in an attempt to protect the Bush Administration.
"As a citizen and political outsider, I find it completely unacceptable that our government failed us on so many counts during the lead up to the war in Iraq," Slattery said. "Ultimately, Chairman Roberts and the Senate Intelligence Committee failed in their oversight responsibility, both going into the war and in getting to the bottom of what happened in a timely manner."
