5/22/13 - Congressman Mike Rogers, the Howell Republican who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is being credited by colleagues on the opposite side of the political aisle with pulling off a rare feat in a bitterly divided Congress: creating a working, productive relationship with Democrats in overseeing the nation's 16 spy agencies. The camaraderie of the four leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence panels - Rogers, Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., and Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. - is so unusual that they even traveled together recently on a four-country, five-day Mideast trip. What they got was a better understanding of the unfulfilled promises of the Arab Spring - from Egypt, where the West wonders about economic stability and human rights under Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, to Jordan, which is grappling with a growing refugee crisis from the two-year civil war in Syria. There were stops in Saudi Arabia and Israel, and plenty of discussions about strategy for getting a cybersecurity bill through Congress. Feinstein, a California Democrat who is Rogers' Senate counterpart, describes him as "a positive leader, which we need." She adds: "We don't need more negative." Rogers laments the partisanship that he says has crept into the national security arena - a region he feels should be a political "neutral zone." The question now is whether Rogers sticks around in the House or fulfills GOP hopes and runs for the U.S. Senate seat from Michigan. Rogers - a seven-term House member - says he's weighing a Senate run but has made no decision. He has also been mentioned as a possible successor to lead the FBI. (JK)
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