Congressman Barr and I have disagreed many times over the years, but we have joined together today with thousands of our fellow citizens-Democrats and Republicans alike-to express our shared concern that America’s Constitution is in grave danger.
In spite of our differences over ideology and politics, we are in strong agreement that the American values we hold most dear have been placed at serious risk by the unprecedented claims of the Administration to a truly breathtaking expansion of executive power.
As we begin this new year, the Executive Branch of our government has been caught eavesdropping on huge numbers of American citizens and has brazenly declared that it has the unilateral right to continue without regard to the established law enacted by Congress to prevent such abuses.
It is imperative that respect for the rule of law be restored.
Republican as well as Democratic members of Congress should support the bipartisan call of the Liberty Coalition for the appointment of a special counsel to pursue the criminal issues raised by warrantless wiretapping of Americans by the President.
Second, new whistleblower protections should immediately be established for members of the Executive Branch who report evidence of wrongdoing – especially where it involves the abuse of Executive Branch authority in the sensitive areas of national security.
Third, both Houses of Congress should hold comprehensive-and not just superficial-hearings into these serious allegations of criminal behavior on the part of the President. And, they should follow the evidence wherever it leads.
Was wondering when libertarian Al Gore would show up.
Funnily enough here’s where he was in his fifth year.
“There is no controlling legal authority that says this was in violation of law.”
– Al Gore, seven times (in one form or another), White House news conference, March 3, 1997
Hopefully he can get beyond the “more power for me good more power for him bad” side of the equation and start moving on to how to turn political rent seekers powers against each other so that they don’t aggregate at one place, aka the constitution.
Use your imagination, McCullough. Take the quote out of context, pretend he was saying it about something at least tangentially related to the present topic, and voila. The man is a huge fucking hypocrit.
It would also be nice if he knew when the Bill of Rights was actually enacted…I guess one of the benefits of having a giant brain and inventing the internet is having people double-check your speeches is superfluous.
That must be some sort of right-wing shibboleth being used at party meetings or something. Like, before they start discussing anything felonious, somebody goes “Al Gore invented the internet!” and they all wait and listen for giggles.
Man, I’m so glad Gore finally had the balls to speak up about this. Hopefully soon he’ll provide details about when the Clinton/Gore administration conducted warrantless searches. The man is a hero.
I don’t know about you guys but I’ve stopped using my home phone cause I’m nervous Bush is listening.
Bush wouldn’t get the date the bill of rights was enacted wrong; he’s call it the Really Good Bites act and adlib on quite convinced it gives him authority to confiscate everyone’s lunch.
I’m not particularily a fan of Gore (although my opinion of him is improving), and definitely feel the Clinton/Gore administration did quite a few things I didn’t like. I don’t recall Clinton authorizing warrantless searches though, nor stating point blank that it could override FISA whenever it felt like.
Can you give a solid link for your statement, or is it just grand hyperbole?
Also, way to completely avoid any serious comment on his meaty speech. Ignore the substance, and just sarcastically roll your eyes and belittle it.
[Edit]Oh, also nice attempt to deflect the discussion to another topic. Demogogue.
Umm, if you consider that to be either thorough, or an evisceration, then there’s even less hope for you than I thought. The person who wrote it is so much a stooge of the republicans that he actually believes Bush’s claim (One that has been proven to be completely false.) that the U.S. does not torture its prisoners. If you can seriously say with a straight face that no torture took place at Abu’Ghraib, then you are so morally void that it’s a wonder light can escape from you.
The article even goes on to make the ludicrous claim that torturing terrorists wouldn’t violate the Geneva convention. Last time I checked, the neo-con overlords in charge of the U.S. weren’t the arbiters of who falls under the Geneva conventions. McCain’s bill was only necessary because the U.S. refuses to follow its own laws when dealing with civilians. Because, after all, if you aren’t foreign military personnel then you are a foreign civilian.
Oooh, I just finished the article. They finish off by claiming that Gore has stated that “God sometimes talked to him”, ignoring the rather obvious fact that Bush has stated the exact same thing. In short, the only possible way to read that article is to take it as a piece of parody, since it’s so full of spin that it’s impossible to do anything else.
This may be simultaneously the most uninformed and morally corrupt opinion on the matter I have ever seen. This article makes me want to vote Gore out of pure reactionary anger.
McClellan said the Clinton-Gore administration had engaged in warrantless physical searches, and he cited an FBI search of the home of CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames without permission from a judge. He said Clinton’s deputy attorney general, Jamie Gorelick, had testified before Congress that the president had the inherent authority to engage in physical searches without warrants.
“I think his hypocrisy knows no bounds,” McClellan said of Gore.
But at the time of the Ames search in 1993 and when Gorelick testified a year later, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act required warrants for electronic surveillance for intelligence purposes, but did not cover physical searches. The law was changed to cover physical searches in 1995 under legislation that Clinton supported and signed.
Bush’s attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, made the same arguments as McClellan during interviews Monday on CNN’s “Larry King Live” and Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes.”
