Pat Roberts has been putting together another campaign for Senate. He's given up his seats on the Intelligence Committee and the Armed Services Committee in exchange for more pork-filled seats, apparently worried that a resurgent Kansas Democratic Party might remember to run someone against him this time around. With no major party opponent in 2002, he managed to get 83% of the vote, and a Democratic challenger could well give him a run for his money.
Pat Roberts has hurt himself by defending an unconstitutional wiretapping program, by bragging about his memory problems and by being Dick Cheney's puppet on the Intelligence Committee:
Vice President Dick Cheney put "constant" pressure on the Republican former head of the Senate Intelligence Committee to stall an investigation into the Bush administration’s use of flawed intelligence on Iraq, the panel’s Democratic chairman charged Thursday.
In an interview with McClatchy Newspapers, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia said it was "not hearsay" that Cheney, a leading proponent of invading Iraq, pushed Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., to drag out the probe.
Senator Reid shut down the Senate in 2005 in order to force Roberts to take the issue seriously, but it languished until the Senate changed hands and Roberts left the committee. The stalled report will focus on how politicians, perhaps including Senator Roberts, abused the intelligence process by omitting uncertainty or misstating intelligence findings in the months preceding the disastrous occupation of Iraq.
ThinkProgress has compiled some of Mr. Roberts greatest hits.
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