Posted on 10/18/2007 10:22:58 AM PDT by jazusamo
October 18, 2007
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Thursday condemned Intelligence Committee Democrats for brokering a deal with the White House that would provide retroactive immunity for telephone companies that assisted the Bush administration’s controversial warrantless wiretapping program.
At the second day of confirmation hearings for President Bush’s Attorney General-nominee Michael Mukasey, Leahy warned that “the Intelligence Committee is about to cave on this,” citing pressure from the White House and press reports suggesting the administration had gotten its way.
“[Administration officials] know that it was illegal conduct and that there is no saving grace for the president to say, ‘Well, I was acting with authority,’ ” said Leahy. “Otherwise there wouldn't be so much pressure on us to immunize illegal conduct by either people acting within our government or within the private industry.”
Leahy’s remarks signal that a bipartisan accord to overhaul the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), reached Wednesday by the Intelligence panel’s leaders and the White House, could divide Democrats and hit a roadblock on his panel as well. The Intelligence Committee marks up the bill Thursday afternoon, after which it will be referred to Judiciary, where more Democrats have openly opposed retroactive immunity language.
His comments also come as House Democratic efforts to overhaul the law are falling into disarray, after House Republicans used parliamentary maneuvers to force leaders to pull the Democrats’ FISA rewrite from the floor late Wednesday.
Attempting to resolve a central point of contention, Senate Intelligence panel Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) reportedly reached a deal Wednesday with Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell to give full retroactive immunity to telephone companies if they can demonstrate they were cooperating lawfully with the secret wiretapping program when suits were levied against them.
Not all Democrats on the Judiciary Committee appeared to share Leahy’s concerns. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who sits on both the Judiciary and Intelligence panels, signaled she was likely to support the bipartisan approach.
“At this stage, it is a bipartisan bill,” Feinstein said. “I’m absolutely convinced that the only way we can legislate on this is on a bipartisan basis. This bill so far is bipartisan — that’s good news.”
During the hearing, Democrats launched fresh criticism at Mukasey’s interpretation of FISA. After the nominee indicated that Bush was not acting illegally by going beyond that statute in authorizing eavesdropping without court warrants, Leahy called that argument “a loophole big enough to drive a truck [through].”
Whether the president is acting illegally “would have to depend on whether what goes outside the statute nonetheless lies within the authority of the president to defend the country,” Mukasey said.
These dems are getting their behinds handed to them on every level. This should inspire more confidence in our conservative principles and the war on terror....the American people want their government to do anything to keep us safe and to win against Islam-Fascists.
True...And fortunately there’s a few dems who realize it.
Clinton, Obama, Edwards etc. should be asked if they agree with Senator Leahy that Osama bin Laden and company should have the right to sue US telephone companies for cooperating with the government in wiretapping their mass murder plans.
Leaky Leahy should be in prison, not in Congress.
The Dems can’t get anything done because they are too busy doing things they shouldn’t be doing like investigating Karl Rove and Gonzales, visiting Assad, passing resolutions about Armenian deaths 90 years ago, and taking campaign contributions from ponzi scheme operators.
They will never be challenged...no Dem ever is. They went on John Stewart and he kissed their behinds....BUT Lynne Cheney goes on and his tries to GRILL HER.
Agree
ping
Yeah, the double standard is on full steam lately. When told that Obama and Dick Cheney were distantly related, Osamabama’s spokesman said “Well, every family has a black sheep.” Big yawn from the media. Imagine that statement reversed and the howls of outrage would be deafening.
Sleep tight America - Patrick Leahy is watching out for you! That ought to cause some nightmares!
Old Leaky Leahy forgets not everybody is from the lunatic fringe known as Vermont....
Unfortunately, I think most Americans just want to be able to to go to
the mall!
“America is not at war;
The Marine Corps is at war;
America is at the mall.”
MV
The motion to recommit language proposed by Republicans says that The Restore Act cannot in any way prevent intelligence agencies from tracking Usama bin Laden, Al Qaeda or conversations between other foreign terrorist entities.
No, you are wrong. It goes like this:
Sleep well, America. The 82nd Airborne is on point.
MV
I fail to understand how a “lame duck” president with a 30% approval raiting runs ring around these guys with such ease! What a bunch of bozos!! :o)
Well said. :-) And it just keeps happening.
The very bad news is that the democrat party is full of traitors, the very good news is that they are very impotent and very stupid. They have been crushed and defeated by President Bush and the Republican Party on every level.
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