Bush to Senate: Screw You – Again

The Bushies are again dissing requests from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for its classified legal opinions on Chimpie's domestic spying program, setting up another confrontation in advance of a hearing scheduled for next week.

With the committee scheduled on Monday to hold the first public hearing on the spying program, the stance could provoke another clash between Congress and the executive branch over access to classified internal documents. The Bushies have just recently provoked controversy with Democrats last week by refusing to release documents pertinent to Hurricane Katrina and to relations with disgraceful lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.

Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who leads the panel, said Wednesday that he had "a lot of questions" the administration had not yet adequately answered about the program's legal rationale. Specter would not address the committee's request for the classified legal opinions, except to say, "that's not a closed matter - we're still working on that."

So far, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales will be the only witness at next week's hearing, and his aides said he was entering it with confidence about the program's legal footing, based on both the president's inherent constitutional authority and a Congressional authorization after the Sept. 11 attacks to use military force against terrorists. But both Republicans and Democrats said Wednesday that they planned to question Mr. Gonzales about those assertions.

Sen. Specter said he was also considering seeking testimony from former Justice Department officials, and perhaps even input from the FISA court itself. Senator Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, said the panel should consider issuing subpoenas if the administration is not more forthcoming in providing documents and witnesses - "Without the Justice Department memos and without more witnesses, it's hard to see how anything other than a rehashing of the administration line is going to happen.....I am worried that these hearings could end up telling us very little when the American people are thirsty to find out what happened here."

King George Rules! Ahh, but the last King George in America didn't fare too well.
Posted on The Human Stain