It’s pretty pathetic to watch Congress try to conduct basic oversight. Look at this:
Senior Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee sharply criticized a Justice Department official yesterday for refusing to say whether the Bush administration has ever considered prosecuting journalists for publishing leaked national security information.
The senators also bristled when Deputy U.S. Attorney Matthew W. Friedrich declined to answer questions about the rationale for the FBI’s attempts to review the papers of the late columnist Jack Anderson.
“You’re basically taking what would be called a testifying Fifth Amendment. You should be ashamed of yourself, or your superiors should be ashamed of themselves,” Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) told Friedrich after he declined to answer questions from committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa).
…Grassley sought to follow up on questions he had posed to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III at a hearing last month about the bureau’s attempts to access Anderson’s files. Friedrich declined to answer but said that “hopefully the bureau will be submitting some type of factual submission to you on that.”
Grassley responded: “I would think that the department would send somebody here to testify that could answer our questions if they [had] any respect for this committee whatsoever.”
But, if you think that is bad, take a look at this:
Phone company executives won’t be grilled by a Senate panel anytime soon about their roles in the Bush administration’s eavesdropping program.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Tuesday he will hold off subpoenaing the telecommunications chiefs while he works with the White House on his legislation that would ask a secretive federal court to review the constitutionality of Bush’s surveillance operations.
Democrats accused Specter of abdicating Congress’ oversight responsibilities.
“Why don’t we just recess for the rest of the year?” the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Pat Leahy of Vermont, asked sarcastically. “Vice President Cheney will just tell the nation what laws we’ll have.”
I can’t think of a better example of just how pathetic the GOP’s oversight is than the idea of Dick Cheney working out a deal with Arlen Specter rather than Specter finding out the facts about illegal domestic surveillance of American citizens. We need to beat the Republicans very badly in November. And our new crop of Democrats need to show some extremism in the defense of liberty. Someone told me that that isn’t a vice.
I would really enjoy a Chairman Leahy.
Look at the Associated Press. They gave Solomon an award for bringing them so much attention on the Reid boxing ticket stories, conveniently ignoring the fact that all of the attention came from bloggers pointing out that Solomon butchered the stories and libeled Reid in the process. Rewarding the liar with a bonus is a sign of how horrible journalism in this country has gotten.
There’s the essence of it all. This administration regards Congress (and all the rest of government that is not part of the cabal) as its beasts of burden or less. The way I regard the mosquito I slap. The way GE regards its customers and workers. The way Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld regard the expendibles dying in Iraq for the regime’s political ends.
Ya gotta wonder what it must feel like to be a GOP member of Congress, trying to put on a facade of dignity and importance while knowing deep down that you’re less than somebody’s abused doggy. How sweet can power taste when you have to lick it off a moron’s ass?
Doesn’t a “deal” usually involve some type of quid pro quo? What resources does Specter have to exact even the smallest concession from the administration?
I know. He can threaten to keep making threats that nobody believes he has any intention of fulfilling.
The White House trembles. “No … please no … anything but that!”
“Someone told me that isn’t a vice”….what goes around, comes back around, sometimes in the most unusual ways. I find myself agreeing with a quote from Barry Goldwater in 1964 that doomed his election campaign against Lyndon Johnson (who was the peace candidate!). Things just seem to get curiouser and curiouser don’t they?