Guest Post by Anonymous Liberal
Yesterday I wrote about Vice President Cheney’s deeply dishonest speech to the Federalist Society in which he claimed, among other things, that the administration’s warrantless surveillance program rested “on firm legal ground.”
When I first read the speech, I assumed it was just another case of Cheney being Cheney. The man is, after all, in a deep state of denial about a great many things. Why should warrantless surveillance be an exception?
But Cheney’s speech on Friday was followed by another speech on the same subject Saturday, this time by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The AP reports:
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales contended Saturday that some critics of the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program were defining freedom in a way that presents a “grave threat” to U.S. security.
Gonzales was the second administration official in two days to attack a federal judge’s ruling last August that the program was unconstitutional. Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday called the decision “an indefensible act of judicial overreaching.”
Gonzales, in remarks prepared for delivery at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said that some see the program as on the verge of stifling freedom rather that protecting the country.
Almost as a rule, when two top administration officials make speeches on the same topic on consecutive days, it reflects a concerted effort by the White House to influence the news cycle. As the AP story points out:
Gonzales and Cheney’s attacks on the court order came as the administration was urging the lame-duck Congress to approve legislation authorizing the warrantless surveillance. The bill’s chances are in doubt, however, because of Democratic opposition in the Senate, where 60 votes are required to end debate and vote.
This is an effort that Democrats can’t afford to take lightly. While I’m encouraged by the lack of press coverage Cheney and Gonzales’ remarks have received, I’m positive that the White House is going to do whatever it can to get the lame duck Republican Senate to pass some version of this dreadful piece of legislation, which has already passed in the House.
It is imperative that this not happen. If such a bill were passed, it could not be undone once the Democrats take over in January. President Bush would, without question, use his veto power to block any efforts to roll back such legislation. The Democrats in the Senate need to use whatever procedural measures they can–up to and including the filibuster–to prevent such a bill from passing. They are the last line of defense, and they only need to hold out a little while longer.
From the moment of its inception over five years ago, the “Terrorist Surveillance Program” has been illegal. The legal arguments underpinning the program have always been frivolous, and those within the administration who came up with them had to have known that they would never survive any real scrutiny. That’s why the administration was so upset when the existence of the program was first reported. It wasn’t because any crucial operational details were released. It was because the exposure of the program virtually insured that, at some point, the legality of the program would have to be litigated in court, a battle the government was sure to lose.
And that’s why the administration is increasingly desperate now. They know that, absent legislation legalizing the program, it will almost surely be struck down. That day of reckoning is coming. All we have to do is make sure the Senate doesn’t moot the issue by passing this distastrously ill-advised legislation during its lame duck session.