Actually, storm clouds appeared on the horizon during the 2001-2002 interregnum of a Democratic majority when Sen. Bob Graham of Florida became chairman. He proposed that the Intelligence Committee staff for the first time be divided evenly, into majority and minority staffs (just as other Senate committees are). He failed. Otherwise, however, he was given a free hand by his Republican vice chairman, Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama. Amid the turmoil following 2001 terrorist attacks, the Intelligence Committee was calm.
After Republicans regained Senate control in the 2002 elections and term limits imposed new leadership on the Intelligence Committee, Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle insisted on an end to non-partisanship. As the new vice chairman, Rockefeller followed the party line by demanding half the staff, which was the real cause for delayed reorganization of the Senate under GOP leadership.
On a personal basis, Roberts gets along well with Rockefeller (and bonded with him on a trip to Iraq earlier in the year). He likes the multi-millionaire scion of the famous Republican family, describing Rockefeller's high-flown pronouncements as "ethereal." But their relationship now is strained to the breaking point.
The partisan tone among the committee's Democrats has been sounded by Levin and his lieutenant, Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois. Levin set the line on Fox News Sunday Nov. 9: "Did the administration, knowing what they knew, with daily briefings, exaggerate the intelligence (about Iraq)? The chairman of this committee and the Republicans refuse to look at the administration's use of exaggeration of intelligence."
The point Levin wants to pursue is that intelligence professionals were pressured by Bush officials to distort their findings. The committee's non-partisan staff has come up with no such information and has had no such complaints made from whistle-blowers in the intelligence community. Democratic demands to leap over the staff produced the memorandum which has laid waste the Senate Intelligence Committee.