Posted on 08/15/2002 1:15:26 PM PDT by USA21
MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL, S.D. (Reuters) - President Bush accused the Democratic-led Senate on Thursday of tying the hands of his proposed Homeland Security Department while Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said the U.S. president was seeking "dictatorial powers" over the agency.
With the stern granite faces of four presidents gazing down from the Mount Rushmore monument, Bush suggested the Senate was placing dangerous limits on his ability to protect the nation through the planned 170,000-strong agency whose creation he proposed after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"I need the flexibility to be able to look at the American people and say we're doing everything we can to protect the homeland against an enemy that hates us," Bush said forcefully to an audience that included Daschle.
Daschle, who stood listening with his hands folded in front of him as Bush spoke, later accused the president of seeking "dictatorial powers," particularly in the freedom to fire government employees and the right to move money around the government without congressional approval.
The South Dakota Democrat told reporters that Senate Democrats did not want to "give this president or any president the dictatorial powers that I think compromise the checks and balances that our founding fathers recognized."
Asked what he meant, Daschle replied: "The ability to fire an employee on the spot. The ability to move resources without any congressional approval from one agency or another. Those are powers that no president has had and we don't think this one should have them either."
The Republicans and Democrats are sparring over the protections the proposed department's employees would enjoy and the administration's ability to move money around in its effort to prevent further attacks on the United States.
Bush also used his visit to the 60-foot (18 meter) busts of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln carved into Mount Rushmore to promote Rep. John Thune of South Dakota, a fellow Republican running in a tight race for the Senate in the Nov. 5 election.
The president hopes Thune will beat Sen. Tim Johnson, who also attended the speech, helping the Republicans retake the Senate and tossing Daschle from the majority leader's office.
"I appreciate you leadership and your friendship," Bush told Thune at the start of his speech.
Control of the Senate is vital to Bush's policies. The Republican-led House of Representatives approved legislation to create a Homeland Security Department to Bush's liking but the Senate has yet to do so and a version approved by committee does not provide many of the powers Bush wants.
Democrats support merging all or parts of 22 federal agencies into a single department to better protect the nation after the Sept. 11 attacks, but they argue Bush's plan will gut the union and civil service rights of government workers.
In his speech, Bush said the Senate's homeland security bill would take away an authority held by every president since Jimmy Carter to exempt agencies from collective bargaining requirements if this were in the national security interest.
He also said it would impose bureaucratic rules that would slow down hiring people for the new department, would make it difficult to reward them with bonuses for good work and prevent the government from moving money around to fight new threats.
While saying Congress was making some progress on the legislation, Bush said: "I'm a little worried about some of the noise I hear. I don't want our hands tied so we cannot do the number one job you expect, which is to protect the homeland."
After a two-day Midwestern swing in which he raised money for Republicans in Wisconsin and Iowa, Bush returns to his Crawford, Texas, ranch on Thursday to resume his four-week working vacation that included this week's Waco economic summit. He returns to Washington around Labor Day on Sept. 2.
Did President Truman ask for a show of hands in Congress before he fired General MacArthur? Did not President Roosevelt "move resources around" w/out further ado during WWII?
This simpering ass Daschle demonstrates once again that for the Democrats, union job security trumps national security and the public safety every time.
Lets see...since he took office President Bush has been so cooperative with the rats, setting a new tone, having Ted Kennedy over for movies, hugging Daschle after 9/11 and sharing credit with the rats for acting quickly to protect the country after the fact (when they certainly did not deserve any credit) signing their agenda into law and now that President Bush needs the Senate Democrats to work with him and cooperate with him to set up some mechanism to implement protections for this country where are the rats? Demonstrating their willingness to jeopardize any kind of structured security and proactive action to protect us from a repeat of 9/11.
I think that President Bush knew a moment like this was coming down the pike and that explains some of the "new tone" that everyone has been upset about. To me, it's becoming a little clearer. President Bush knows the rats for what they are- diehard socialists who hate and despise him and the people who voted for him; who hate the fact that he is good and decent and honest; who despise the fact that the most egregious parts of their America-hating agenda have now been stopped.
The timing is perfect too. President Bush, in getting tough with the rats at this particular time, is seen not as a mean-spirited Republican, but a man genuinely worried about another terrorist attack, who is trying to do something to protect Americans, and who is standing in his way? Rats. For what reason? To protect a voting bloc that most Americans resent to begin with. Conclusion? Kick the rats to the curb and put in people who are serious about fighting terrorism.
Priceless!
I did the same thing :) Thanks for the ping John. Great article!
in Maryland the government pay for 50% of a home Government employees
Just warning you... That sounds too much like Harry Browne...
TC
The problems in the FBI, IRS, INS etc arose from two sources. 1. Congress failing to exercise their oversight obligations and 2. Internal Agency Management.
Congress is incompetent in their ability to manage, therefore, they blame. Management in the Agencies promotes like-minded idiots. We referred to the empty suits as BOMBS. Blindly Obedient Mobile Boobs. Promotion was based on "Who you know and who you blow." (Affirmative action is based on need, not ability; and in general, there is no requirement for measured competency or merit) If you do not think that a scenario as it exists and which can be made even worse with top-level guidance from the President can't be corrupted, you are wrong. Imagine a more perverted Clinton, or even Hillary commanding the "Homeland" Security. Instant Marshal Law.
No need to say more, I think you get the picture. Use the Agency to coordinate data, not to collect and "enforce". In that case, data coordination, I can see the President having the right to hire and fire, otherwise corruption!
. . .ahh yes!
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