President Bush has named U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Laurence Silberman as co-chairman of a commission to look into the shortcomings in the intelligence provided to the administration prior to the Iraq war -- much to the dismay of U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. He took the Senate floor Wednesday to express his concerns about the appointment. Here is an unofficial transcript of his remarks -- provided by the senator's office:
"I was relieved that the President decided he was going to appoint an independent panel to review what took place in our going to Iraq, but after he made the decision to do that and appointed the panel, it was obvious it was just a hoax.
"Look at who is the co-chair of this panel. One of the most partisan people in all America is a man by the name of Judge Silberman. He is a person who wears proudly the label of a partisan, even though he hides it as often as he can from the public.
"As I said, I was glad that President Bush realized we need a commission to investigate what went wrong, although I would have preferred that Congress appoint members to ensure its independence. If this commission is going to do its job, it must be free of political influence. It must be above even the appearance of partisan bias.
"Throw those things out the window. Because there is not only the appearance of partisan bias. There is political bias.
"Laurence Silberman is a longtime political operative in the far right of the Republican party. He served in a number of different capacities over the years. He has been involved in many partisan matters over the years. To show how people who are well-reasoned and thinking people, how they feel about this man, I quote a professor of law at American University by the name of Herman Schwartz: 'He is fiercely partisan, pugnacious, and very political. He has an odd choice for a panel that is supposed to be above suspicion on a matter that is very important and potentially very partisan. Picking Silberman verges on the brazen. It's a thumb in the eye to those who are looking for a real investigation.'
"That's who we have as co-chair of this independent commission: a man who is politically partisan and the appointment is brazen. As I indicated, he is a longtime political operative, far right of the Republican party. He served in many capacities. He was an aide in the Reagan-Bush campaign. One his assignments then was to serve as liaison to the Islamic regime in Iran where Americans were being held hostage. There's some question as to whether there was a deal made that the crisis would not end until after -- after the election.
"But as soon as the election was over and the hostages were released, Silberman was appointed by the President to the Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. It speaks volumes to indicate that one of his early decisions came in the case of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, a principal figure in the Iran-contra affair, which involved the release of Iranian hostages. There is the documentation of many meetings of Silberman meeting with the people in the White House, including Colonel North prior to this all taking place.
"And even though North and Admiral Poindexter were convicted, the convictions were turned over by Laurence Silberman.
"We know that the investigation cost $60 million or $80 million and accomplished nothing. Silberman worked as an attorney in the Justice Department, took the number-two job under President Ford when Rumsfeld and Cheney had top jobs in the White House of President Ford. I repeat, in the fall of 1980, when Ronald Reagan was running to unseat President Carter -- and this is from The Los Angeles Times: 'Silberman and two other Reagan advisers met secretly with a man who claimed to have ties to the government of Iran, which is holding 55 American hostages.'
"The meetings later led to allegations that Reagan aides sought to delay the release of hostages until the November election. Well, it's interesting to note that he hadn't done enough, it appears, in 1987, when Reagan was under investigation by an independent counsel.
"Silberman did away with the Independent Counsel Act, saying it was unconstitutional. Of course that one was followed up by the Supreme Court, which overwhelmingly reversed him just a month later. But Silberman had the last word because in 1990, his opinion, joined by a fellow Republican appointee who through all of this voided North's conviction and also Reagan's national-security adviser Poindexter.
"Silberman was one of President Clinton's most aggressive term winners. In 1998, he was part of a federal appellate panel that rejected the president's claim of executive privilege to block the Secret Service about testifying about Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Silberman's opinion, to say the least, was very political. He ripped the Attorney General for acting in the personal interest of President Clinton and questioned whether the president, by allowing aides to criticize Kenneth Starr, was 'declaring war on the United States.' Not very judicious, I would think.
"There was a book called Blinded by the Right, written by David Brock. It is a very interesting book about how this young man who was a student at one of the universities in California decided to join with the far right.
"But David Brock, during his tenure as a spokesperson for the right and writing all of these very, very damaging, misleading articles and even books, said in his book Blinded by the Right that his adviser -- a person who directed him where to go, what to say, and even went through books and articles he'd written to proofread them to see if he could be more hard-hitting than Brock -- is the man who is going to be the co-chairman of the independent counsel.
"Brock said the judge encouraged him to be aggressive and even on one occasion suggested a specific tip involving the president's sex life to pursue. When David Brock, at the direction of many in the right wing, wrote critically about the late senator Paul Simon, he sent an advance copy to Judge Silberman's home. Brock wrote that Silberman was ecstatic about the case that he had made against Simon.
"Mr. President, a person has a right to be as partisan as they choose to be. But not if you're a judge. Judges not only have to do away with what is wrong but what appears to be wrong. Doesn't it seem wrong that this man, Laurence Silberman, is the co-chairman of a bipartisan, independent commission when it's been acknowledged by most everyone that this is one of the most partisan people in our community?
" Herman Schwartz, the American University law professor, says, 'He is fiercely partisan and pugnacious. He is an odd choice for a panel that's supposed to be above suspicion on a matter that's very important and potentially very partisan. Picking Silberman verges on the brazen' -- and I agree with that.
"Let's see if that means what I think it means. 'Brazen.' I have a little dictionary here. Let's see what it says. 'Brazen. Boldness.' Yeah, it's pretty bold.
"Brock says in his book, 'Larry" -- that's Larry Silberman -- 'would often preface his advice to me that judges shouldn't get involved in politics. That would be improper, he'd say, and then he had go ahead and give this information that was partisan.'
"By engaging in partisan activities while he was a sitting judge, Silberman has raised questions about his impartiality -- and that's an understatement."
Harry Reid is a U.S. Senator. These remarks were made in the Senate on Wednesday, Feb. 11.
