As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I was given access to those opinions, and spent hours poring over them. Sitting in that secure room, as a lawyer, as a former U.S. Attorney, legal counsel to Rhode Island’s Governor, and State Attorney General, I was increasingly dismayed and amazed as I read on.
To give you an example of what I read, I have gotten three legal propositions from these OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] opinions declassified. Here they are, as accurately as my note taking could reproduce them from the classified documents. Listen for yourself. I will read all three, and then discuss each one.
As a Freshman Senator from Rhode Island, Sheldon Whitehouse has been a star performer. He’s careful, thoughtful, and backs up what he says with facts. In the Senate Hearings on the U.S. Attorney firing, he produced a chart on the right that carried the day. Remember? It compares the number of people in the Executive Branch that were authorized to talk to the DOJ in the Clinton White House and the Bush White House – effectively showing that the Bush Administration has engulfed our judiciary rather than respecting the Separation of Powers. There’s a video on Youtube of him taking Alberto Gonzales apart like a Senior Surgeon. It was an amazing moment. On that day, AGAG became "history."In the speech quoted above, that same, precise logic shines. Although written by the Senator, a former U.S. Attorney, about the ins and outs of the secret Office of Legal Counsel opinions made during the Bush years about spying, it’s readable, and makes very clear the absolute absurdity of their overall logic. He’s abstracted the legal jargon to make things very explicit. The gist of things is that this President can do anything he wants to do, including changing his mind in mid sentence. It’s almost too ridiculous to even describe. And the decisions of that President cannot be questioned because, well just because. There are no limits on Presidential power in the Bush cosmology…
Bush and his co- president Cheney are above the law, it’s as simple as that. Reagan was called the teflon president but Bush and Cheney will probably get called the most corrupt and lawless duo to ever occupy the office of president and vice president. I hope Bush gets a chance to see his legacy and sees how proud his parents are of his achievements. I can see it now the worst president in U. S. history. Imagine that, Bush beating Nixon.
I think this is highlights very well the “thinking” of the Bush Administration, and on the other hand it highlights the really talented leadership that we need to encourage to move forward to repair the damage the Bush Administrations thinking has done.
The way I see it there are two reasons the President would need such powers. Either he’s so incompetant that he has to have the ability to do a U-Turn at will to make up for his inability to lead OR he can’t accomplish his agenda within the bounds of the law as is so needs the law removed. I think time and time again it’s been proven within a shadow of a doubt that it’s the latter. Bush and Cheney went into the White House with a specific agenda. They accomplished part of it and then got caught. And for the past year I think it was such a shocking realization we’ve been paralized by it so that those who were taking action had little back up. I can only hope that Mr. Whitehouse and his cohort of really saavy and good politicians can pin the tail on the donkey and expose B & C for what they are.