DeLay Critical of 9/11 Panel's 'Partisanship'

In a letter to commission Chairman Thomas H. Kean, DeLay said he was troubled by what he believed was "gotcha-style questioning" during recent hearings with national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and top officials from the FBI and CIA.

"The camera-driven tone of the hearings undermines the commission's credibility, distracts the . . . people from the gravity of the war on terror, and could send dangerous messages to unfriendly eyes and ears around the world," DeLay wrote.

Kean, a former New Jersey governor and a Republican, denied the 10-member panel was politically motivated and said it was committed to a full accounting of the events leading up to Sept. 11, 2001. "Sometimes the public exchanges are pointed, but no more so than in the Congress itself," Kean responded in a letter to DeLay.

DeLay is the King of Partisanship

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican, said Democrats and their presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, "haven't produced anything but hate."

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, shot back: "There is no room for compromise, negotiations or working together in the Republican House .... This arrogant and autocratic rule is leading to abuses of power."