Posted on 06/08/2006 2:44:04 PM PDT by Kaslin
Vice President Dick Cheney Thursday defended himself against accusations by a leading Republican senator that he worked to thwart Senate plans to make telephone executives testify at a hearing about a U.S. domestic spying program.
A day after Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter rebuked Cheney for trying to head off subpoenas of the phone company executives, Cheney acknowledged that he had spoken to Senate leaders and members of Specter's committee.
He said in a letter to Specter that he acted when the administration became concerned about a "compulsory process to force testimony" in a matter that could involve classified information.
However, he said, his contacts with senators were "not unusual" and that in his role as vice president, "I have frequent contact with senators, both at their initiative and mine."
"The respectful and candid exchange of views is something to be encouraged rather than avoided," Cheney said.
Specter had written to Cheney to protest his role in what the Pennsylvania senator said was a larger White House effort to keep the courts and Congress from examining constitutional questions raised by the warrantless eavesdropping program.
Specter said Cheney had asked Republicans to oppose "any ... hearing, even a closed one" and advised lawmakers that the companies were "not to provide any information to the committee as they were prohibited from disclosing classified information."
Specter said Cheney's action prompted him to delay plans to subpoena the executives. The subpoenas would compel executives to testify about what role their companies may have played in the spy program.
The domestic spying program, which President Bush ordered soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, allows the National Security Agency to monitor the international phone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens without first obtaining warrants if in pursuit of al-Qaida suspects.
Cheney said that his conversations with the senators took place after White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten raised the concerns with Specter himself.
Perhaps in his own mind.
The day got a little better.
I can't stand Snarlin Arlen.
We alomst had him off the JC, but certain leaders wimped out.
We should have pushed even harder.
What a pompous a-hole.
Good for Cheney.
This is the Baron of Scotland trying to micro-manage his turf as chair of a committee and being pissy with the Vice President of his own party and an administration that saved his bacon in the last Primaries.
Why Bush supported this scumbag in the PA GOP primary in 2004...
Specter cannot win this argument and needs to step away from pen and paper, have a drink and settle down.
Cheney is much more respected by conservatives than Arlen and Cheney doesn't give a rat's butt what the liberals think.
It is wrong for Arlen to try to haul the phone company execs in to use them as proxies in his battle with the executive.
Don't hold back...:-)
Dick Cheney is PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE!!!!
Arlen is just a committee chairman.
Case closed.
We now return you to our regularly scheduled feature: "Scottish Law and the United States Senate".
Just gotta love him.
The Vice President is President of the Senate. Arlen may need to borrow Sheets Byrd's pocket copy of the Constitution to remind him of the fact.
First Zarqawi, then Samhadana, and now Specter.
It just keeps getting better.
I'd be interested in seeing MacRanger's take on this. There's certainly more going on here than what's being reported.
Mr. VP this is what you get in gratitude for the administration you are a part of helping to put RINO's in positions of power.
Makes perfect sense. I'm a grandfather and Mrs. Chandler seems to like me.
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