Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts called on Sen. John Kerry to release his Intelligence Committee attendance records on Sunday - as controversy swirled over claims that the top Democrat was mostly a no-show during important hearings.
"The easiest way out of this is for John Kerry and John Edwards to request [Committee Vice Chairman] Sen. Rockefeller and myself to release the attendance [records]," Roberts told NBC's "Meet the Press."
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Roberts urged that any Kerry record release should cover "not only of the public hearings, which they have rebutted, but the closed hearings," adding, "It is important, because you have to be in attendance to learn the job."
The Kerry campaign has acknowledged that the Massachusetts Democrat missed scores of public hearings, but insisted he attended "private" sessions and is a "hard-working" member of the Intelligence Committee.
Asked if the "hard-working" description was accurate, Sen. Roberts declined to back Kerry up.
"Well, 'hard-working member' is in the eyes of the beholder," he told "Meet the Press."
A Bush-Cheney campaign commercial set to debut on Monday accuses Kerry of being absent for 76 percent of the Intelligence Committee's hearings, noting that he was completely AWOL for the entire year after the 1993 World Trade Center attack.
"That same year," the ad says, "Sen. Kerry proposed slashing the intelligence budget by $6 billion."
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Jane Harman, who appeared on "Meet the Press" with Roberts, said she couldn't defend Kerry's Intelligence Committee attendance record.
"I don't know what the facts are and I really can't speak to that," she explained.
Editor's note:
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