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Kudos from feline: One of the many things I love about this chatroom is knowledgable people who can instantly gratify my need to be informed, and immediately exchange ideas - I love it!

Demanding Truth, Justice and Accountability in Government

Beltway Treachery: The Shameful Antics of Arlen Specter and the Department of "Justice"

Reed31463

The progressive Netroots must continue to expose the Bush regime's absurd legal arguments for NSA domestic wiretaps, and target the Department of Justice and Senate Judiciary Committee for their betrayal of the Constitution.

There is the growing rift between the DoJ and the Senate Judiciary Committee in reference to the ongoing lawsuits and the attempts to obscure the facts by creating legislation ex post facto, legalizing what is so obviously a blatant abuse of power and illegal activity.

Senator Specter's letter is attempt to play politics and buy immunity for himself should impeachment hearings arise. On page three he writes,

It has been my hope that there could be an accommodation between Congress's Article I authority on oversight and the President's constitutional authority under Article II. There is no doubt that the NSA program violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act which sets forth the exclusive procedure for domestic wiretaps which requires the approval of the FISA Court. It may be that the President has inherent authority under Article II to trump that statute, (There is no inherent authority. Article 1, Section 8 gives Congress original powers "To make all Laws...for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution...in any Department or Officer thereof), but the President does not have a blank check and the determination on whether the President has such Article II power calls for a balancing test which requires knowing what the surveillance program constitutes.

Sen. Specter wants to deflect a hearing topic from the obvious illegal activity and a lack of oversight, into a hearing discussing reasons to allow the executive this unwarranted privilege, then offer up S 2453 to justify the illegal activity. Glenn Greenwald is following the story. It has also been reported reported here and here.

Sen Feingold points out the obvious in his letter yesterday.I have since been briefed on the program, although I still have much more to learn about it. Based on what information has been provided to me, I remain absolutely
convinced that the program is illegal. I also believe that the Administration could and should have complied with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs all electronic surveillance within the United States.

SNIP

I strongly believe that Congress must conduct a full investigation of the program. But at a bare minimum, the Judiciary Committee needs further information about this program so that it can carry out its jurisdictional responsibilities. While the Judiciary Committee need not delve into the kind of operational detail provided to the Intelligence Committee, I firmly believe that the Judiciary Committee cannot do its job without access to contemporaneous legal justifications for the program and a candid exchange with Administration officials about the basis for bypassing FISA.

The DoJ is vulnerable because they too take an oath to defend the Constitution and they cannot make the claim of "National Security" or "states secrets" when examining the legal advise they are giving. The American Bar Association needs to wake up and start disbarment proceedings on any number of lawyers in the DoJ, such as David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, Yoo, Viet Dinh, Adam White, Wendy Keefer, Peter Keisler, and Bradford Berenson.

In Michigan and New Jersey, there are lawsuits taking place over NSA domestic wiretaps and the DoJ is illegally interfering with the New Jersey case and a case in Virginia has already been tampered with.

I remember the philosophical question, "How do you eat an elephant?", and of course the answer is once piece at a time. We have leverage and the Executive and Congress are obviously not going to be able to restore balance anytime soon. This leaves us the only one other recourse: to seek balance through the Judiciary. So let's start shining the light on the DoJ and chipping away at this elephant.

More to follow. Those who wish to study ahead read Cheney and the 1987 Iran-Contra Minority Report. JC, I know, is well aware of the ties to Iran-Contra. These problems will never go away until the root cause of the problems facing our constitution are solved. Justice must be served to all those complicit in this widening conspiracy to render the Constitution "quaint."

Comment # 1 ~ Alma ~ 06/20/2006 00:32 GMT

Well researched as always. Instead of eating the elephants, can we just lock them up?

Comment # 2 ~ Rusty ~ 06/21/2006 00:21 GMT

Reed's research skills are impressive. As for philosophy, I say let's lock Specter AND the elephants up and let them eat each other.

Comment # 3 ~ Rusty ~ 07/28/2006 19:18 GMT

Actually, I'm not sure that would qualify as philosophy, but it would be a good solution and we could sell tickets.