Administration Tries To Discredit Daschle To Save Own Asses
The habitually mendacious Bush administration is having to employ their well-honed skills to discredit a serious flaw in the White House argument that the extra-legal NSA warrantless eavesdropping program was authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed by Congress in the wake of the 9-11 attacks.
(F)ormer senator Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), majority leader at the time of the vote, argued in a Dec. 23 opinion article in The Washington Post that Congress could not have implied such power because it refused a more direct request.
See Congress Removed Domestic Military Authorization From Sept. 2001 War Resolution.
"Literally minutes before the Senate cast its vote" on Sept. 14, 2001, Daschle wrote, the White House asked to insert the words "in the United States" into the use-of-force resolution. "I could see no justification for Congress to accede to this extraordinary request for additional authority," Daschle added. "I refused."
Assistant Attorney General William Moschella, responding yesterday to questions from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), wrote that "we do not recall such a discussion with former Senator Daschle and are not aware of any record reflecting such a conversation."
The old "we do not recall" excuse. This excuse has kept many people in Washington from the clutches of the legal system over the past 25-30 years. You can expect to hear a near symphony of the faulty memory excuse over the next year with Plamegate, NSA, and all the other scandals reaching critical mass.
Daschle, in a telephone interview yesterday, stood by his account. "They can deny it, but it happened," Daschle said, "and there's no question in my mind that the reason" is that Bush advisers "feared that they didn't have the authority" to exercise war powers domestically without the inserted language.
Denis McDonough, who was then Daschle's foreign policy aide, said in a separate interview that David Crane, his counterpart in the office of then-Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), was the person who brought the White House request to Daschle...
Reached by telephone last night, Crane said he has "absolutely no recollection of that ever having occurred." Though he took part in negotiations over the use-of-force resolution, Crane said, he had been reassigned to another task before the resolution reached the Senate floor.
The fact that language expressly approving the domestic warrantless eavesdropping was not permitted to be included in the AUMF doesn't really square with administration claims that the AUMF is the controlling legislation for the NSA program.
That is why the White House is portraying Daschle as being the liar. They have no choice. If the program is found to be illegal, the Haldemann/Ehrlichmann scenario could come into play.
All the president's men could then find themselves wondering why they catered to Bush and Cheney's abuses of power.
(F)ormer senator Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), majority leader at the time of the vote, argued in a Dec. 23 opinion article in The Washington Post that Congress could not have implied such power because it refused a more direct request.
See Congress Removed Domestic Military Authorization From Sept. 2001 War Resolution.
"Literally minutes before the Senate cast its vote" on Sept. 14, 2001, Daschle wrote, the White House asked to insert the words "in the United States" into the use-of-force resolution. "I could see no justification for Congress to accede to this extraordinary request for additional authority," Daschle added. "I refused."
Assistant Attorney General William Moschella, responding yesterday to questions from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), wrote that "we do not recall such a discussion with former Senator Daschle and are not aware of any record reflecting such a conversation."
The old "we do not recall" excuse. This excuse has kept many people in Washington from the clutches of the legal system over the past 25-30 years. You can expect to hear a near symphony of the faulty memory excuse over the next year with Plamegate, NSA, and all the other scandals reaching critical mass.
Daschle, in a telephone interview yesterday, stood by his account. "They can deny it, but it happened," Daschle said, "and there's no question in my mind that the reason" is that Bush advisers "feared that they didn't have the authority" to exercise war powers domestically without the inserted language.
Denis McDonough, who was then Daschle's foreign policy aide, said in a separate interview that David Crane, his counterpart in the office of then-Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), was the person who brought the White House request to Daschle...
Reached by telephone last night, Crane said he has "absolutely no recollection of that ever having occurred." Though he took part in negotiations over the use-of-force resolution, Crane said, he had been reassigned to another task before the resolution reached the Senate floor.
The fact that language expressly approving the domestic warrantless eavesdropping was not permitted to be included in the AUMF doesn't really square with administration claims that the AUMF is the controlling legislation for the NSA program.
That is why the White House is portraying Daschle as being the liar. They have no choice. If the program is found to be illegal, the Haldemann/Ehrlichmann scenario could come into play.
All the president's men could then find themselves wondering why they catered to Bush and Cheney's abuses of power.
posted by Effwit at 10:10 AM
7 Comments:
Aha!
They're grasping at straws, as usual. Hell hath no fury like a politico who's cornered. Just like a rabid animal, he/she will do anything to survive.
M1 and DrewL:
They are really getting desparate now.
Bill Frist threatens to re-structure the Intelligence Committee in order to block NSA hearings
What a slimeball.
I just read Glenn's post. Excellent overview. Frist is, once again, out of control. He claims the Intel Committee is being overcome by partisan politics over this. Yes it is. And HE'S the one causing it to happen!
Frist is in the administration's pockets, no question. And he is showing just how much of a political hack he really is. He likes to do political surgery with a meat cleaver instead of a scalpel.
DrewL:
Frist is acting even more pathetic than usual (though the Terri Schiavo diagnosis from afar is pretty hard to beat).
The goopers know that the whole house of cards depends on them escaping from the NSA scandal.
I would have thought that the Iraq war would have been their Achilles Heel, but they are clearly more concerned with the illegal eavesdropping program.
They probably know that there are more revelations coming soon, so they must nip the whole thing in the bud.
Yes, I too believe it's the prospect of 'more revelations coming soon' that has them unsettled.
M1:
IMO The sooner, the better.
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