ONCE AGAIN, THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS ACCUSED, BY BOTH REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS, OF MISLEADING CONGRESS

This is clearly part of a larger, pervasive pattern. The Bush Administration withholding, or providing misleading, information. As noted in the Washington Post:

A conservative Republican and a liberal Democrat have accused the Bush Administration of misleading Congress by withholding key information about India
when the House voted last week to support U.S. plans to sell nuclear technology to New Delhi. Administration officials knew at the time -- but did not tell lawmakers -- that it planned to sanction two Indian firms for selling missile parts to Iran.

As the Post also notes, in a July 28 Letter to the Secretary of the State, Dana Rohrabaker (R-CA) and William D. Delahunt (D-MA), "top members of the House International Relations Subcomittee, " along with member Howard Berman (D-CA), wrote:

to express our grave concerns about testimony provided by Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation Frank Record at a July 20, 2005 hearing
on U.S. Nonproliferation Strategies – testimony that is, on its face, highly misleading if not intentionally deceptive (emphasis added).

Again, this pattern of withholding, or providing misleading, information, has been ongoing.

As noted in both the link above, and herein, paraphrased:

Consider the highly controversial, and costly, medicare prescription drug bill, bizarrely passed in the wee hours of the night late in late November, 2003:

The Bush Administration warned its chief medicare actuary to not share his actual cost estimates of the controversial program with Congress: cost estimates about a hundred and fifty billion dollars higher than Congress' presumed cost of the program.

Tom Scully, medicare administrator, also called the sharing of such critical information with Congress prior to the vote as; "insubordination." And he had an email sent to his chief actuary stating that "the consequences of insubordination were extremely severe," which Foster took to mean his job itself. And, as the NY Times, and the Wall Street Journal noted (according to numerous sites) reported Scully also stated in conversation with health staff that "'If Rick Foster gives that to you, I'll fire him so fast his head will spin."

Since when has sharing the most basic, critical information with Congress, that Congress needs to know before it votes on a bill that was projected (unbeknownst to Congress) to cost over half a trillion dollars, "insubordination"? Apparently since the Bush Administration took office.

Jjust a few of Senator Ted Kennedy's points from a little noted speech on the floor of the Senate, also referenced in the links above:

...Under the Bush administration, openness and accountability have been replaced by secrecy and evasion of responsibility.

...In May 2001, Vice President Cheney's energy task force issued its report recommending more oil and gas drilling...In light of his former employment at Halliburton, [not] astonishing. What was astonishing was the Vice President's refusal to identify the people and groups who helped write the policy.

The nonpartisan, investigative arm of Congress [the GA)], following reports that campaign contributors had special access while the public was shut out, asked, ``Who serves on the task force; what information is being presented to [it], and by whom is it being given... The administration [simply] refused to comply.

...In July 2003, the 9/11 Commission's [bipartisan] cochairmen, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, complained publicly that the administration was [once again] failing to provide requested information. In October 2003, the Commission...after repeated
requests, [finally had] to subpoena records from the FAA. In November 2003, after multiple requests, the Commission again had to subpoena information, this time from the Department of Defense.

For the rest of that fall and spring, the administration repeatedly tried to deny access to presidential documents important to the Commission's investigation... Key members of the administration balked at testifying.

...Last October, Congressmen Christopher Shays [R-CT] and Henry Waxman [D-CA], the chairman and ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International
Relations, asked for an audit of the Development Fund for Iraq. The copy they
received had over 400 items blacked out. They had so much difficulty obtaining
an unredacted report from the Defense Department that they had to prepare a
subpoena. Once they finally received an unredacted copy, guess what had been
blacked out? More than $218 million in charges from Halliburton. So far, no one has been held accountable.

...There is also a pattern of withholding information from members of Congress on the administration's nominations. In '03, Miguel Estrada was nominated for a Federal judgeship. We requested legal memoranda he wrote as Assistant Solicitor General, and..were repeatedly denied. In '04, Alberto Gonzales was nominated to be Attorney General. We requested various memoranda he authorized on administration torture policy, and we were repeatedly denied.

Earlier this year...we requested documents to determine if John Bolton]acted appropriately in his previous job, and we have been repeatedly denied.

...In 2003, the Food and Drug Administration kept secret a report that children on antidepressants were twice as likely to be involved in suicide-related behavior. The FDA also prevented the author of the study--their expert on the issue--from presenting his findings to an FDA advisory committee.

...In April 2004, the ranking member of the Environment and
Public Works Committee, Senator Jeffords, was forced to place holds on several
EPA nominees after the administration refused to respond to twelve outstanding
information requests, including information on air pollution.

Then, of course, there is Iraq.