Frist: Memogate Dems Can't Be Trusted With Intel Secrets

Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Wednesday that he was forced to limit the activities of the Senate Intelligence Committee because he no longer believes Democrat members who sanctioned the partisan misuse of committee resources can be trusted with foreign intelligence secrets.

Noting that committee Democrats have yet to identify the author of a controversial memo urging that intelligence data be used as a political weapon against President Bush, Frist told radio host Sean Hannity, "If those people are still in the room handling intelligence given to us by other nations so that they can undermine our commander in chief, that misuse of intelligence is unacceptable."

The top Republican complained, "It is unbelievable to me that we're now a week into this and the Democrats haven't even disavowed the partisan injection in the committee itself."

Sen. Frist suggested that he would not grant committee Democrats full access to classified intelligence until the members and staffers implicated in Memogate have been purged from the panel.

"You can't have business as usual because you know whatever comes out of the committee is being written by staff members who have an intent or purpose to inject partisanship into what they're doing," he explained, adding, "Right now it's difficult for the committee to function."

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