GOP Repetition Irks Democrats at Lake Hearing

On the third day of confirmation hearings for CIA Director-designate Anthony Lake, Democratic senators Thursday for the first time criticized Republicans for continuing to question the nominee on the same handful of issues.

After listening to Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) grill Lake for the third time on his statements on ballistic missile targeting and his views on past foreign policy decisions, Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) had had enough.

“It does seem to me that at some point you’ve plowed the ground . . . you’ve got [a] sufficient amount of information and [can] make a decision about whether or not you’re going to vote to confirm,” said Kerrey, who is vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

During Thursday morning’s public session, the most contentious to date, Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) charged that the hearings have been neither “bipartisan” nor “rational.”

Late Thursday, however, after completion of Lake’s first appearance in a closed session in the afternoon, committee Chairman Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) said, “There was a lot more ground to cover.” Shelby said Lake, who was White House national security advisor during President Clinton’s first term, would return next Thursday for another day of public and private questioning.

Following the closed session, Kerrey said in an interview Thursday night: “I personally think there is precious little more to cover.”

He added, “If you want to identify an issue, such as Iranian arms going to Bosnia, do it; but once done, it’s over. They are doing it repetitively.”

Thursday, for example, Sens. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.), Dan Coats (R-Ind.) and Inhofe for the second time each questioned Lake about Bosnia and the decision not to tell Congress that the administration was turning a blind eye to the Iranian arms shipments to Bosnian Muslims through Croatia.

“We are trying to judge Mr. Lake’s judgment,” Coats said in response to Kerrey. “We’re trying to utilize the decisions he’s made and the experience that he’s had to make a determination on his ability to provide sound judgment.”