FYI....John Warner up giving a speech re: the NSA program...and the dangers of taking the power for those wiretaps aways...but, is also taking the "other side" as well..
He DID say that he and the others in the GANG OF 14, have been dicussing this...and they plan on submitting a plan after the President's Day recess....OH, YEAH!!!!/s
Thanks for the update; I was just listening to Whittington's press conference.
Dang. I switched to FoxNews for Whittington, Cheney, Bush on word received elsewhere.
President Bush talking now. Thanks for the heads up on Warner, I'll make a point of reading that far ;-)
I put the full text of his comments in the same thread that has the Byrd speech. It also has Senator Roberts' press statement, which Warner referred to.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1581077/posts?page=11#11
Roberts' statement is basically that the administration is open to legislation, and the Intelligence Committee has NOT decided to undertake an inquiry. "If, by [March 7], we have reached no detailed accommodation with the Administration concerning the Committees oversight role, it is possible that the Committee may vote to conduct an inquiry into the program."
Warner echoes that with his, "in consultation with the White House, we will proceed, hopefully, on a constructive and fair and objective, to the extent we can get politics out of it, look at the existing laws and determine such modifications as can be agreed upon. ... I hope we can arrive at some legislative package--and it should not be seen as the administration giving in to the Congress or the Congress overriding. ... each day we let this [legal] uncertainty exist has the potential to further impair the intelligence system. ... the reality is a lot of citizens of clear conscience believe the President may not be acting within the law. We have to remove that. We want every person in the United States to believe our President is acting within the law as we pursue this war on terrorism."
Warner's concluding paragraph indicates the magnitude of the challenge.
I am very pleased to support what the distinguished Chairman PAT ROBERTS said about the meeting yesterday, and that there will be, in a consultative process, an analysis made by the Congress and the administration in resolving this, and possibly we can seek legislation. It will be a challenge because of the question of the degree of knowledge that we have with regard to how collection is undertaken and how we translate that into law. That will be an unusual challenge facing this body, and we are going to have to reach down and search in our souls and put politics to one side and determine that we are acting in the present and long-term interests of this country--that we have to do it in such a way that when it is concluded we have across the board supported the American public to continue to move forward stronger.43 . DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE NOMINATIONS -- (Senate - February 17, 2006)
There is movement on more than one front, Roberts and Warner discussion relating to legislation, the administration acknowledging the possibility of legislation, e.g., White house presser noting DeWine involvement, Senator Specter mulling over legislation as well, and Senator Byrd (and no doubt others) pressing for an Independent Commission to investigate the surveillance.
IMO, it's pretty messy right now.
It's not the only mess that is coming to a head either. The detention of enemy combatants is brewing HOT, outside of the view of the news. SCOTUS had a (private and scheduled) conference yesterday where the Hamdan case was supposed to be one of the subjects of discussion. Also, we still have no word on SCOTUS decision relating to the Padilla case, word that had been expected to come in January. SCOTUS is struggling with the general issue of war on terror too.