Jay Rockefeller: “I rise in support of the erstwhile amendment--maybe it will come back--calling on the Attorney General to appoint a…”

“I rise in support of the erstwhile amendment--maybe it will come back--calling on the Attorney General to appoint a special counsel to investigate allegations that senior Bush administration personnel--perhaps including those working at the very highest level of the White House--may have knowingly and deliberately revealed to the press the identity of an undercover CIA agent. This is a matter of national security. It is a matter of criminal law. It is a matter that demands the most careful, impartial, and independent investigation possible. The Senate, Republican and Democrat alike, should go on record today--which we have not--to demand the Attorney General not hold this too close within the administration family, where the investigation will inevitably be questioned as raising conflicts of interest. This is going to happen. Forget the people involved. It is simply going to be an issue with the public.”