Biden Wants Special Counsel in Tape Case

Huckabee exhibits a spine of clay...

The Senate and House intelligence committees are both investigating the destruction of the tapes and Hagel said one goal is to know whether justice was obstructed and who in the White House might have known about the fate of the tapes. Rockefeller, citing the confidentiality of certain intelligence briefings, said he could not comment on the existence of any other interrogation tapes.

On the presidential campaign trail, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said destruction of the tapes "harms the credibility and the moral standing of America in the world again. There will be skepticism and cynicism all over the world about how we treat prisoners and whether we practice torture or not." Rival Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, questioned whether the action was taken for security purposes "or to cover somebody's rear end."

"If we're covering somebody's rear end, we need to expose their rear end and kick their rear end for doing something that's against the best interest of the United States," he said.