No Wonder He's So Popular

Lee Hamilton, former Democratic congressman from Indiana, is always called upon when the government needs a fancy commission. He was Vice Chairman of the 9/11 Commission and the Co-Chairman of the Iraq Study Group.

From Secrecy & Privilege by Robert Parry:

[Oliver] North's operation was hidden from Congress and even some senior members of the Reagan-Bush administration. In 1985, I wrote the first story mentioning the secret activities of North...

By mid-1986, [Brian] Barger and I had pieced together a great deal about North's contra supply operation in Central America, but the Reagan-Bush administration kept denying that North's network existed. One of our stories that had cited 24 sources finally prompted an investigation by the House Intelligence Committee, then headed by Representative Lee Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat with an assiduously maintained reputation for moderation. In August 1986, Hamilton and committee members — including Republican Representatives Dick Cheney and Henry Hyde — met with North in the White House Situation Room. They asked the Marine lieutenant colonel if there was truth to the contra supply allegations. North and his superiors denied the story. That was good enough for Hamilton and the other committee members who agreed that there was no need for further investigation.

After the meeting, a Democratic staff aide called me. "Your story didn't check out," the aide said. "Congressman Hamilton had the choice of accepting the word of honorable men or the word of your sources. It wasn't a close call."

Whoops!