(Host) The leading candidates for Vermont’s open U.S. Senate seat strongly disagree on whether or not Congress should investigate the reasons why the Bush Administration went to war in Iraq.
Speaking last night on VPR’s U.S. Senate debate, Independent candidate Bernie Sanders said it’s important for Congress for hold hearings on this issue:
(Sanders) “I do believe that the American people are in fact entitled to know what George Bush knew in terms of Iraq and when he knew it. The president says, hey don’t blame me for going to war because the intelligence agencies gave me bad intelligence.’ You know what? A lot of people don’t believe that that is the case. They believe that Bush cherry picked the intelligence. I think we need to have serious hearings and I think if the democrats gain control of the house or Senate, you’re going to have that.”
(Host) But Republican candidate Rich Tarrant said little would be gained from holding these kinds of hearings and he would strongly oppose any efforts by the Democrats to impeach President Bush:
(Tarrant) “We need to get on with the work of the country. And if we sidetrack ourselves once again like we did in the 90s with President Clinton, it’s just not good for the country. We have got to pull together. We have got to act as one country. This partisan hatred is ruining the country. We have to get together.”
(Host) Tarrant says if he had been a member of the Senate in 1998, he would have voted against any effort to investigate President Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky.