No agreement on "Phase II" of WMD investigation

This is a really weird article from Dana Milbank, WaPo. But there's a lot of juice in it. Remember that Sen. Roberts is head of the intel committee that would do the investigations Frist and Hastert called for yesterday.

Now comes a new controversy: demands by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.) that the intelligence committees probe a Washington Post story on secret CIA prisons for terrorists. Frist did not inform Roberts before going public with a letter addressed to Roberts and his House counterpart.

"I heard about it on CNN," the chairman told reporters after lunch. Noticing that his questioners were quoting from the letter, Roberts said: "I've not received that. . . . If you have the letter, I'd like to see it." .....

The six did not agree on the key disputes: how long a probe would take, which administration officials would be interviewed, and how to handle the activities of former undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith's office. They punted the questions to a meeting of the full committee scheduled for this morning. And, by all accounts, it was tense.

Bond ducked out mid-meeting, reporting, sardonically, that they were "having a lot of fun." The national intelligence director, John D. Negroponte, paid the senators an unannounced visit -- then departed within a minute, as aides insisted the drop-by was coincidental. ....

Rockefeller reached out for a handshake. Roberts seemed baffled by the gesture and, after a painful pause, took the ranking Democrat's hand. Before Rockefeller could make his statement, Roberts turned and walked away. "There's no question that there are several areas where there are substantial disagreements," Rockefeller allowed. ....

Defending the military's treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, he added: "There are more senators and congressmen with ethics cases pending than there are problems with interrogation right now in Gitmo."That argument might not earn him favor with his colleagues.

I know this is kind of insider/gossipy, but I just couldn't turn away.