I just got off of a short teleconference with Senator Kit Bond about the new report by the Senate Intelligence Committee which concludes that the Bush administration distorted intelligence in the run up to the war in Iraq. What follows are my notes, not quotes, from the teleconference.

Opening Statement

The report that just came out of the Senate Intelligence Committee was drafted by partisan Democratic staff to deliberately distort what happened in the run-up to the war. In July of 2004, the Senate Intelligence panel said that flawed intelligence, not an attempt to mislead by the Bush Administration, caused the problems.

There was no distortion by the Bush Administration, no lies; it's all Democratic politics. Democrats examined the same intelligence as the Bush administration and came to the same conclusions about the intelligence back in 2004.

The minority was completely cut out of the process. It's purely partisan. They cherry picked intelligence. They're are knowingly distorting and lying to try to mischaracterize what happened.

Q&A Session

(Question from me) Normally, the Senate Intelligence Committee has a reputation for non-partisanship. Would you say that's the case and if so, why has it gone so wrong this time? Is it an election year problem?

The partisanship has been growing worse and worse. Democratic staffers gained control over the phase two of this. This flawed partisan report is being touted as a finding of the Intelligence Committee, when it is a finding of the Democrats.

Can you address what's happening with FISA? Can you address the increasing fight over intelligence.

We are moving ahead. I started meeting with Steny Hoyer in April; we have worked with the intelligence community and Republicans to make him happy. He came back with a counter-proposal. I think the intelligence community has made all the concessions that they can take. We're going to continue to negotiate.

Can you tell us what Steny Hoyer came back with?

He changed some of the drafting and made it impossible for us to work with it. But, we are getting close, so hopefully, we can get this taken care of and sent to the President.

PS: You may find this to be a very relevant link.

If The Bush Administration Lied About WMD, So Did These People -- Version 3.0