Senators reject Kerry's claim Bush misled U.S.

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Senate leaders from both parties heading an inquiry of intelligence information on Iraq yesterday repudiated Sen. John Kerry's accusation that the Bush administration misled the country into war, and accused him of political posturing.

Sen. Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican and chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia Democrat and ranking committee member, dismissed the comments as political while appearing on "Fox News Sunday."

"The senator is running for president," Mr. Rockefeller said.

"And I think that Pat Roberts and I make a distinction between people who are running for president and therefore need to capture attention, and what we on the Intelligence Committee have to do, which is to get the facts and to get the intelligence, the counterintelligence and then try and decide," Mr. Rockefeller said.

Mr. Roberts criticized Mr. Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, for "beating up on the president [and] the intelligence community" and said "now is not the time to be doing that."

"As far as John Kerry is concerned ... nothing hurts the truth so much as stretching it," Mr. Roberts said.

Mr. Kerry made the accusations against Mr. Bush while campaigning in Lebanon, N.H., on Wednesday.

"I will not let [Mr. Bush] off the hook throughout this campaign with respect to America's credibility and credibility to me, because if he lied, he lied to me personally. I believe I can hold President Bush accountable if they have misled us," Mr. Kerry said.

Sen. George Allen, Virginia Republican, suggested Mr. Kerry's comments were due to his opposition to the war, but pointed out Mr. Kerry supported President Clinton's military strikes against Saddam Hussein in 1997 and 1998.