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Dem leaders say they were unaware of Petraeus hearing |
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By Elana Schor
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Posted: 07/19/07 02:03 PM [ET] |
Two Senate Democratic leaders who failed to attend Thursday’s Pentagon teleconference with Gen. David Petraeus said they were unaware that they had been invited and questioned the White House’s use of faxes to notify senators of the high-profile briefing.
Both Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Democratic Caucus Secretary Patty Murray (Wash.) indicated they would have made room in their schedules to speak with Petraeus, the chief commander in Baghdad, and Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, if the White House had informed them more urgently.
Durbin said the White House’s communication about upcoming Iraq briefings is “usually very reliable,” but wondered aloud why the invitation to Thursday’s event came through a mass fax rather than staff notification.
“I’m just going to write it off as [due to] poor staff work,” Durbin said. “I’m not going to make it more sinister than that.”
Murray echoed Durbin’s puzzlement: “It was faxed in our public fax [machine], where thousands of constituent faxes are,” she said.
Attendance at Petraeus briefings has sparked political infighting in the past, most notably in April, when House Republicans castigated Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for deciding not to attend a Washington meeting with Petraeus.
Pelosi deflated the GOP's claims by noting that she received a one-on-one briefing with Petraeus before his visit to Capitol Hill.
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) noted on Thursday that an Aug. 1 Petraeus briefing for senators has long been in the works. Some Democrats described the more sudden joint briefing with Crocker as part of the White House effort to win back senators who are moving closer to public embrace of withdrawal from Iraq.
Several Democrats made it to Thursday morning’s sessions, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.). Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) did not attend in order to chair a Foreign Relations Committee hearing, during which Crocker testified via satellite. Asked later Thursday about the notification process, Biden said his White House invitation likely came through staff.
“I assume I got one,” he said. |
