Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Jamie: Yes, We Have No Integrity
Let's look at what Clinton's deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick had to say about a President's inherent authority in today's Washington Post, p.A10:
“The issue here is this: If you’re John McCain and you just got Congress to agree to limits on interrogation techniques, why would you think that limits anything if the executive branch can ignore it by asserting its inherent authority?"
Now let's go down memory lane and see what she had to say about the very same subject whilst testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee on July 14, 1994, when it was her boss Bill Clinton asserting his Presidential "inherent authority":
"The Department of Justice believes, and the case law supports, that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes and that the President may, as has been done, delegate this authority to the Attorney General.
"It is important to understand, that the rules and methodology for criminal searches are inconsistent with the collection of foreign intelligence and would unduly frustrate the president in carrying out his foreign intelligence responsibilities."
As NRO's Cliff May points out, "Gorelick is making a simple point: The rules are different when there is a Democrat in the White House. What about that don’t you understand?"
UPDATE: Byron York has more on the Democrats' bald-faced lack of integrity.
So does Dick Morris in today's NY Post:
"Equally irresponsible is the criticism Democrats are leveling at President Bush for his use of National Security Agency wiretaps to catch terrorists. Before Clinton and Schumer criticize this policy, they'd do well to reflect on the fact that the Brooklyn Bridge might well be rubble, with thousands dead, if Bush did not use these wiretaps."
More from Everything I Know Is Wrong:
President Jimmy Carter was the first President to put these laws into effect by signing Executive Order 12139 (thanks to Sweetness & Light for the pointer to this Executive Order). I don't remember hearing anyone complaining about it then, even though the terrorism situation was much less dire than it is now.
Read it all- the man's done his homework.
“The issue here is this: If you’re John McCain and you just got Congress to agree to limits on interrogation techniques, why would you think that limits anything if the executive branch can ignore it by asserting its inherent authority?"
Now let's go down memory lane and see what she had to say about the very same subject whilst testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee on July 14, 1994, when it was her boss Bill Clinton asserting his Presidential "inherent authority":
"The Department of Justice believes, and the case law supports, that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes and that the President may, as has been done, delegate this authority to the Attorney General.
"It is important to understand, that the rules and methodology for criminal searches are inconsistent with the collection of foreign intelligence and would unduly frustrate the president in carrying out his foreign intelligence responsibilities."
As NRO's Cliff May points out, "Gorelick is making a simple point: The rules are different when there is a Democrat in the White House. What about that don’t you understand?"
UPDATE: Byron York has more on the Democrats' bald-faced lack of integrity.
So does Dick Morris in today's NY Post:
"Equally irresponsible is the criticism Democrats are leveling at President Bush for his use of National Security Agency wiretaps to catch terrorists. Before Clinton and Schumer criticize this policy, they'd do well to reflect on the fact that the Brooklyn Bridge might well be rubble, with thousands dead, if Bush did not use these wiretaps."
More from Everything I Know Is Wrong:
President Jimmy Carter was the first President to put these laws into effect by signing Executive Order 12139 (thanks to Sweetness & Light for the pointer to this Executive Order). I don't remember hearing anyone complaining about it then, even though the terrorism situation was much less dire than it is now.
Read it all- the man's done his homework.
