House Republicans rejected a Democratic resolution that would have forced the Bush administration to do what it is already doing: provide the intelligence used as the basis for its assertions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Democrats agreed that their proposal was moot now that thousands of pages of intelligence documents are being turned over to Congress and the House Intelligence Committee has begun a review of prewar intelligence.

But they urged the International Relations Committee not to reject it outright. They said doing so would send the wrong message at a time when questions are rampant about whether the case for war was based on inaccurate or deliberately misinterpreted intelligence.

"There is a growing credibility gap faced by the administration on what information they were provided by the intelligence agencies and what they did with that information," said Rep. Joseph Hoeffel (news, bio, voting record), D-Pa. "Did they believe what they wanted to believe at the White House? Did they just hear what they wanted to hear, or did they tell Congress what they wanted us to hear?"

Republicans said it made no sense to request documents that are already being submitted.

Some Democrats "don't want to take yes for an answer," said Rep. Mike Pence (news, bio, voting record), R-Ind.

The resolution was defeated 23-15 on a party line vote, with two Republicans and one Democrat voting present. It had been introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (news, bio, voting record), D-Ohio, a Democratic presidential candidate and one of Congress' most vocal opponents of the Iraq invasion.

Most of the congressional debate on prewar intelligence has been in the Senate, where Republicans on the Intelligence Committee have rejected Democratic calls for a full-scale investigation. They say regular oversight proceedings will suffice.

Following a formal request from committee Democrats, the Senate intelligence panel will meet Wednesday to decide its next moves. Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said he expects committee staff and members could review the documents over two weeks and begin holding closed hearings with witnesses, including witnesses from both the Bush and Clinton administrations. Public hearings are possible, and Roberts said he expects the committee to produce final reports, both classified and unclassified.

"I don't know what it is that we're not doing that they (the Democrats) want us to do," he said.

But the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, said he wants a "much more proactive" investigation. He said two weeks will be inadequate for reviewing the documents, and open hearings should be held in October or November.

On the House Intelligence Committee, Democrats and Republicans agree on how to examine the prewar intelligence and plan their first closed-door hearing Wednesday. International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde told Democrats he would also be willing to hold hearings "at the appropriate time," after Congress gets all the information available to it.

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