Last night, I was lamenting the absence of great orators to a friend in an email, saying, "I guess the great orators got it all said and skipped reincarnation, because there aren’t any currently haunting those hallowed halls [the Senate]… … and we’ll await the emergence of a Henry Clay or a Daniel Webster." So […]
And both Bush and his father winced as they sat behind the pulpit and heard the Rev. Joseph Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr., take several jabs at foreign and domestic policies. "We know there were no weapons of mass destruction over there, but Coretta knew and we […]
Where’s My Subpoena? Valerie Plame, Scooter Libby, and me. By John Dickerson In Washington, the only thing worse than having to testify before a grand jury is not being asked to. I never wanted to go to prison or make hard choices about protecting my sources, but I thought I’d get more out of my […]
Rove counting heads on the Senate Judiciary Committee Congressional sources said Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove has threatened to blacklist any Republican who votes against the president. The sources said the blacklist would mean a halt in any White House political or financial support of senators running for re-election in November. Right now, Jimmy […]
COMMITTEE MEMBER PARTY/STATE TERM SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER (R-PA) 2008 SENATOR ORRIN G. HATCH (R-UT) 2006 * SENATOR CHARLES E. GRASSLEY (R-IA) 2010 SENATOR JON KYL (R-AZ) 2006 * SENATOR MIKE DEWINE (R-OH) 2006 * SENATOR JEFF SESSIONS (R-AL) 2008 SENATOR LINDSEY O. GRAHAM (R-SC) 2008 SENATOR JOHN CORNYN (R-TX) 2008 SENATOR SAM BROWNBACK (R-KS) 2008 […]
Josh Marshall has two pieces that bear on yesterday’s hearings. The first was from one of his readers: The constant invocation of the practices of pre-FISA presidents is an incredibly important legal and constitutional point. If the president has the inherent authority to conduct surveillance, FISA might be unconstitutional. The main issue is whether Congress […]
from today’s hearings: BIDEN: Let me very precise. GONZALES: OK. BIDEN: I have not heard of NSA saying to the Intelligence Committee, "We are binding ourselves as we engage in this activity under the minimization procedures of 12333, as well as other statutes." I’m unaware that that’s written down or stated anywhere or been presented […]
I’ve spent the last couple of days reading about Neoconservativism. See, I had this great idea of explaining what it is. Well here’s the deal. I’ve erased everything I was writing about it because I was just talking around the bush [pun intended]. It didn’t make any sense.So here are the salient points of what […]
I’m not sure why they call them "hearings." I just tried to watch, and I didn’t "hear" very much. Shumer is asking questions. Gonzales is not answering questions by saying anything except, "the President has the authority to…" Anything else he bats away as either attempts to get at operations or unanswerable hypotheticals. One sort […]