Who the hell is the Congressional research group??
The Dem staffers, no doubt.
speaking of constipated... he comes the biggest t*&^ of all.
That's what I'm wondering. WTH are they and who funds all that research they do??? This is just laughable.
It's purpose seems to be to allow individual representatives to do research that normally could only be afforded by committees which had staff. Kind of a "temp-staff" service, specializing in evaluating proposals and doing comparisons of laws.
I THINK that the reference to the "congressional research group" was meant to be this service, and not some other group. I remember reading in the past that this group has a collection of staffers of different party persuasions, and reps can choose the staff to do the inquiries, and that you tend to get out what you want -- kind of like "fixing" the intelligence.
They also tend to interpret everything in a way most favorable to congress in any debate over executive powers, which I guess you would expect from an arm of congress.
They do tend to lean liberal, and are used by a lot of 3rd-party liberal interest groups for information. I couldn't prove it, but I imagine these groups go to their liberal representatives that they have bought with campaign contributions, and ask them to request studies that the groups can then use to further their fundraising.
For example, this citation is from the web site of the "National Council for Science and the Environment":
The NLE currently posts 1544 CRS Reports on environmental and related topics. New & Updated Reports The Congressional Research Service (CRS), part of the Library of Congress, prepares its reports for the U.S. Congress. CRS products undergo review for accuracy and objectivity and contain nontechnical information that can be very useful to people interested in environmental policy. CRS does not itself provide these documents to the general public. Although CRS documents are prepared specifically for Congress and not widely distributed, their distribution is not protected by law or copyright
Here is a citation about their report on the NSA story, from commondreams:
WASHINGTON - January 6 - On December 18, 2005, Congressman Kucinich requested the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) prepare a memo on the legal authority of the president to conduct electronic surveillance without a warrant.
In the conclusion CRS states: "...it appears unlikely that a court would hold that Congress has expressly or impliedly authorized the NSA electronic surveillance operations here under discussion, and it would likewise appear that, to the extent that those surveillances fall within the definition of "electronic surveillance" within the meaning of FISA or any activity regulated under Title III, Congress intended to cover the entire field with these statutes." -CRS Report p. 44
As you can see from this summary, CRS did not actually rule on whether the program was "illegal", it merely said that the program did not meet the criteria of the FIS law. You can also see that this was requested by Kucinich. And you can realise once again how much your tax dollars are wasted for partisan political purposes -- your taxes go to pay for researchers to generate left-wing propaganda.
If Leahy said what he said on the street, he might be subject to a civil trial for slander, but not while he's talking from that chair in the congress. He definitely mislead the american people with his comments.
BTW, it was Kucinich who "drew" the conclusion that the president broke "the law", which I suppose might be technically accurate, since he may have acted contrary to this law (I'm not saying he did). His summary of the CRS report was:
Kucinich issued the following statement on the CRS report: "The President broke the law. That's the definitive finding of the Congressional Research Service (CRS), nonpartisan experts. Congress did not authorize the warrantless wiretaps of Americans and the law doesn't permit the President to sidestep Congress."