{"id":251,"date":"2006-01-19T12:47:56","date_gmt":"2006-01-17T20:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/?p=251"},"modified":"2006-01-19T12:47:56","modified_gmt":"2006-01-19T18:47:56","slug":"the-principal-remedy-george-under-our-society-is-to-pay-a-political-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/qotd\/the-principal-remedy-george-under-our-society-is-to-pay-a-political-price\/","title":{"rendered":"the principal remedy, George, under our society is to pay a political price<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amen to the suggestion from a Republican that “the principal remedy … <\/p>\n

under our society is to pay a political price.” Make the Radical Right pay big this fall. mjh<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gore Says Bush Broke <\/p>\n

the Law With Spying<\/a> By Chris Cillizza, Special to The Washington Post<\/p>\n

“The president of the United States has been <\/p>\n

breaking the law repeatedly and insistently<\/strong>,” Gore said in a speech at Constitution Hall in Washington. “A president who breaks <\/p>\n

the law is a threat to the very structure of our government.” …<\/p>\n

“The disrespect embodied in these apparent mass violations of <\/p>\n

the law is part of a larger pattern of seeming indifference to the Constitution that is deeply troubling to Americans in both political <\/p>\n

parties,” Gore said. The Bush administration’s actions have “brought our republic to the brink of a dangerous breach in the fabric of <\/p>\n

the Constitution,” he added. …<\/p>\n

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) has called Attorney General Alberto R. <\/p>\n

Gonzales to testify at a hearing about the eavesdropping program. Specter said Sunday that if Bush broke the law in authorizing wiretaps <\/p>\n

without going through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court to get warrants, he could face impeachment.<\/p>\n

“I’m not <\/p>\n

suggesting remotely that there’s any basis” for impeachment, Specter told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.” “After <\/p>\n

impeachment, you could have a criminal prosecution, but the principal remedy, George, under our society is to pay a political <\/p>\n

price<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

[updated 1\/19\/06]<\/p>\n

Gore’s Challenge<\/a> By David S. Broder<\/p>\n

Former vice president <\/p>\n

Al Gore has turned himself into a one-man grand jury, ready to indict the Bush administration for any number of crimes against the <\/p>\n

Constitution. Whether you agree with Gore’s conclusions or not, the speech that the 2000 Democratic nominee for president gave this week <\/p>\n

in Washington was as comprehensive a rundown of George W. Bush’s ventures to the limits of executive authority as anyone could hope to <\/p>\n

find. …<\/p>\n

But even after discounting for political motivations, it seems to me that Gore has done a service by laying out <\/p>\n

the case as clearly and copiously as he has done<\/strong>. His overall charge is that Bush has systematically broken the laws and bent <\/p>\n

the Constitution by his actions in the areas of national security and domestic anti-terrorism. …<\/p>\n

Gore is certainly right about <\/p>\n

one thing. When he challenged the members of Congress to “start acting like the independent and co-equal branch of government you’re <\/p>\n

supposed to be,” he was issuing a call of conscience that goes well beyond any partisan criticism<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Report Questions Legality of Briefings on Surveillance <\/p>\n

– New York Times<\/a> By SCOTT SHANE<\/p>\n

A legal analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service concludes that the Bush <\/p>\n

administration’s limited briefings for Congress on the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping without warrants are <\/p>\n

“inconsistent with the law.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The analysis was requested by Representative Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on <\/p>\n

the House Intelligence Committee, who said in a Jan. 4 letter to President Bush that she believed the briefings should be open to all the <\/p>\n

members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.<\/p>\n

Instead, the briefings have been limited to the Republican and Democratic <\/p>\n

leaders of the House and Senate and of the Intelligence Committees, the so-called Gang of Eight. …<\/p>\n

Of the Congressional Research <\/p>\n

Service analysis, Ms. Harman said, “It’s a solid piece of work<\/strong>, and it confirms a view I’ve held for a long time.”<\/p>\n

A White House spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity because the program was classified, said, “We continue to brief the <\/p>\n

appropriate<\/em> members of Congress as we have been for the last several years.”<\/p>\n

White House Disputes Gore on NSA Spying<\/a> By Peter Baker, <\/p>\n

Washington Post Staff Writer<\/p>\n

“Al Gore’s hypocrisy knows no bounds,” Bush’s press secretary, Scott McClellan, responded. “If he <\/p>\n

is going to be the voice of the Democratic Party on national security matters, we welcome it.” [mjh: i.e. “Bring it <\/p>\n

on!”]<\/span><\/p>\n

McClellan dismissed yesterday’s court complaints as “frivolous lawsuits” that “do nothing to help enhance civil <\/p>\n

liberties or protect the American people.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amen to the suggestion from a Republican that “the principal remedy … under our society is to pay a political price.” Make the Radical Right pay big this fall. mjh Gore Says Bush Broke the Law With Spying By Chris Cillizza, Special to The Washington Post “The president of the United States has been breaking … Continue reading the principal remedy, George, under our society is to pay a political price<\/i><\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dump-duhbya","category-qotd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}