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We're in Grave Danger! Wait, No We're Not!
Sunday the L.A. Times reported on Attorney General Mukasey and National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell's embarrassing backpedaling on their false declarations that U.S. wiretapping abilities have been hindered by House Democrats' refusal to blindly/dumbly pass the Senate FISA Amendments Act:
On Friday evening, Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence J. Michael McConnell had said in an unusually blunt letter to Congress that the nation "is now more vulnerable to terrorist attack and other foreign threats" because lawmakers had not yet acted on the administration's proposal for the wiretapping law. The duo actually went on to tell Congress that wiretapping capabilities were hindered or lost while House Democrats and Republications "discussed" the Senate FISA bill. So now deliberation and debate in Congress are part of the problem. No mention, of course, of House Republicans' walk-out last week. If they had truly believed the nation was at risk, that every moment counted, would they pull such immature stunts? An act one outlet described as "like the frat boys in Animal House?" We'd like to think not. And it's certainly worth mentioning that Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and House Members Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.) and John Conyers (d-Mi.) have pointed out as much in an editorial in The Washington Post on Sunday. They write: So what's behind the president's "sky is falling" rhetoric? We thoroughly agree with these Congressmen, and have said as much. They're showing true leadership. We hope this isn't just tough-talk and grandstanding: we hope this is a sign that House Democrats won't cave into White House pressure the way the Senate did.
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