CNN reports that Senator Jeff Sessions (R) has become the first Senator to publicly call for Jamie Gorelick to resign her seat on the 9/11 Commission due to the conflict-of-interest issues revolving around her role in barring intelligence and law-enforcement agents from sharing information:

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, called on Gorelick to resign, becoming the first senator to do so. He told CNN that such a move would help the commission salvage its credibility.

"We have a little bit of a problem now with confidence in that commission," said Sessions. "For her to continue to play a key role in it when she herself really should be one of the people being reviewed is difficult for me to swallow."

Gorelick, meanwhile, adamantly insists that she will not resign her seat, and so far has the backing of the Republican chair of the commission, Thomas Kean. However, ever since the release of her 1995 memo, it has become apparent that Gorelick's work lies at the heart of what the 9/11 Commission is supposed to investigate. If her memo doesn't demand her testimony, then I don't know what qualifies, and I would guess that the panel itself couldn't articulate it. So far, the only explanation of why she hasn't been compelled to testify is that she's on the panel -- which is why she should have already resigned.

In a biting piece of irony, the Commission spokesperson gave this response:

Commission spokesman Al Felzenberg told CNN that any member of Congress has the right to express an opinion, but "we very much hope that they would contact the commission directly and not communicate through the media."

Yes, apparently the Commissioners resent having to compete for air time.

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Captain's Quarters Coming from the spokesman for the 911 Commission, this is rich: Commission spokesman Al Felzenberg told CNN that any member of Congress has the right to express an opinion, but "we very much hope that they would contact [Read More]

Tracked on April 23, 2004 9:07 PM