UPDATE: DAYTON THE COWARD #15
I think Minnesota should adopt Senator Sessions so we can have two patriotic and strong U.S. Senators!
Please call Senator Sessions at (202) 224-4124 and thank him for his strong leadership!
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Dayton's reasons are still unclear
Speculation swirls around decision to close his D.C. office
Why did Dayton do it?
That question ricocheted around Capitol Hill on Wednesday, after U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton decided to shut his Washington, D.C. office due to an unspecified terrorist threat. All day, his announcement provoked speculation, anxiety, ridicule and bewilderment.
Nearly 200 top Senate aides jammed into a security meeting Wednesday, anxious to hear if they, too, should depart Capitol Hill. There, they heard Dayton's chief of staff give an apology — not really about the decision, but about how it was perceived.
"There was a declaration of regret that Senator Dayton's decision may have injected fear among staff in the Senate and created more confusion, and a sense of panic, than they ever intended," said one senior Senate staffer who attended. "There was an apology made for that. That was not their intention at all."
Yet many staffers at the meeting were unaware of the top-secret information Dayton cited, and those staffers demanded changes — which they later got — so that offices had better access to threat warnings.
Meanwhile, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., mocked the decision by requesting Dayton's office space in the Russell Senate Office Building.
"Since I assume Senator Dayton won't feel safe anytime soon, I suggest that you find Senator Dayton permanent space off Capitol Hill and that you allocate his Russell Office space to me," Sessions wrote to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
By late Wednesday, no other senators had followed Dayton's lead and closed their Washington offices. And security officials reiterated that there was no new intelligence threat that mentioned Capitol Hill. Bill Pickle is the Senate's Sergeant at Arms, who has oversight responsibilities for the Capitol Police and works with the intelligence agencies.
Said Pickle, "I guess we had close to 200 people show up today. We basically wanted to affirm to them that there was no new specific intelligence that talked about the Capitol, or any public institution by name. Senator Dayton receives the same briefing as all other senators do, and has access to the same intelligence information that all senators do. He exercised his right to use an abundance of caution."
What worried Senate aides, Pickle said, was: "What does he know that we don't? The reality was, nothing has changed, and it was just a personal decision that he made."
For his part, Dayton spent the day in Minnesota and said he hadn't changed his mind. Had he heard much reaction?
"Probably more criticism than anything else," said Dayton, a Democrat who faces re-election in two years. "It's difficult with people not having access to the information I have, and I accept that. I am convinced I made the right and necessary decision. … If I'm not willing to make a stand that I believe in, particularly when it involves people that I am responsible for their safety, then I don't belong where I am."
Dayton believes it would be "immoral" for him to wrap up a Senate session and head back to Minnesota, leaving his Senate staff in place after hearing warnings of a threatened attack. Again Wednesday, he warned citizens (on national TV) to avoid visiting Capitol Hill in the next month — prompting another wave of criticism.
"Not only is Senator Dayton sending the wrong message to terrorists and the American people, he has also called into serious question his ability to effectively represent the people of Minnesota," charged Corey Miltimore, executive director of the Republican Party of Minnesota.
Dayton said he can't discuss the information because of its top-secret classification. But he and others offered a fuller explanation of the sequence of events.
On Sept. 22, all senators were invited to a secure room inside the U.S. Capitol to hear a briefing on Iraqi security. During that briefing, attended by about 40 senators, Frist mentioned there was an updated domestic threat assessment, and evidently referred to it in worried tones.
The next morning, Dayton read the threat assessment himself and, according to his staff, he found it "alarming." Dayton met with the Senate sergeant at arms to discuss it. Then Dayton spoke to Senate leaders, urging them to call together all 100 U.S. senators.
The leaders declined. Dayton asked twice more. They declined again.
"I thought that was the beginning of the discussion, not the end of it," Dayton said.
One thing that alarmed Dayton was the memo's "very emphatic" tone, which he found unusual for a threat report. Said Dayton, "I took it as a very strong and emphatic statement that represented a strong consensus within the intelligence community."
From all accounts, the threat report does not specifically mention Capitol Hill, although there are some indications that Washington is cited.
Dayton puts stock in the 9/11 Commission's finding that al-Qaida has a history of revisiting its earlier terror targets. Dayton's Senate office sits across the street from the Capitol.
Said political analyst Norm Ornstein, "The reality is, we know the Capitol is at the top of the target list for the unfinished business of the terrorists, and we know that members of Congress in particular have been told by the Department of Homeland Security that there is a lot of chatter for doing something before the election."
But, Ornstein added, "I can't see any evidence out there that there's something that's happened in the last two weeks that would cause this kind of reaction, as opposed to the more general one. … Why you'd sort of 'go public' with this is a question that I can't quite answer."
Dayton's decision has prompted an intense reaction. Several Republicans suggested Dayton is surrendering to the terrorists. The Taxpayers League of Minnesota called Dayton "a coward." U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said he wasn't sure if Dayton was "overreaching, whether he's showboating," or what, but "he's sending a terrible signal to the country."
At the Senate meeting Wednesday, several aides asked Pickle whether Dayton was overreacting to the threat.
"That's not for me to say," Pickle said, when asked by reporters. "Again, he interpreted the intelligence he received, and his reaction was different from other senators."
Said Dayton, "I take this matter very seriously. I thought about it for the better part of two weeks, and considered it from every aspect." Source: Pioneer Press, October 14, 2004
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