Aha ! ----- Found this......No wonder Specter is so pissed.

He was ALREADY suspicious of Bush activity that was being undertaken. Little did he know the extent. Now he does and he knows he was being stroked!!



<All clips from judiciary oversight committee February 2003> ....... http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2003_rpt/fisa.html


Within weeks of passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings with senior DOJ officials on implementation of the new law and other steps that were being taken by the Administration to combat terrorism. The Committee heard testimony on November 28, 2001, from Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff and, on December 6, 2001, from Attorney General Ashcroft. In response to written questions submitted in connection with the latter hearing, DOJ confirmed that shortly after the USA PATRIOT Act had been signed by the President on October 26, 2001, DOJ began to press the Congress for additional changes to relax FISA requirements, including expansion of the definition of “foreign power” to include individual, non-U.S. persons engaged in international terrorism. DOJ explained that this proposal was to address the threat posed by a single foreign terrorist without an obvious tie to another person, group, or state overseas. Yet, when asked to “provide this Committee with information about specific cases that support your claim to need such broad new powers,” DOJ was silent in its response and named no specific cases showing such a need, nor did it say that it could provide such specificity even in a classified setting.4 In short, DOJ sought more power but was either unwilling or unable to provide an example as to why.

Particularly with respect to our FISA oversight efforts, we are disappointed with the non-responsiveness of the DOJ and FBI. Although the FBI and the DOJ have sometimes cooperated with our oversight efforts, often, legitimate requests went unanswered or the DOJ answers were delayed for so long or were so incomplete that they were of minimal use in the oversight efforts of this Committee. The difficulty in obtaining responses from DOJ prompted Senator Specter to ask the Attorney General directly, “how do we communicate with you and are you really too busy to respond?”

Second, the FBI and DOJ repeatedly refused to provide Members of the Judiciary Committee with a copy of the FISA Court’s May 17, 2002, opinion rejecting the DOJ’s proposed implementation of the USA PATRIOT Act’s FISA amendments. This refusal was made despite the fact that the opinion, which was highly critical of aspects of the FBI’s past performance on FISA warrants, was not classified and bore directly upon the meaning of provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act authored by Members of the Judiciary Committee. Indeed, the Committee eventually had to obtain the opinion not from the DOJ but directly from the FISA Court, and it was only through these efforts that the public was first made aware of the important appeal being pursued by the DOJ and the legal positions being taken by the Department on the FISA Amendments.

In both of these instances, and in others, the DOJ and FBI have made exercise of our oversight responsibilities difficult. It is our sincere hope that the FBI and DOJ will reconsider their approach to congressional oversight in the future. The Congress and the American people deserve to know what their government is doing. Certainly, the Department should not expect Congress to be a “rubber stamp” on its requests for new or expanded powers if requests for information about how the Department has handled its existing powers have been either ignored or summarily paid lip service.



An undeniable and distinguishing feature of the flawed FISA implementation system that has developed at the DOJ and FBI over the last 23 years is its secrecy. Both at the legal and operational level, the most generalized aspects of the DOJ’s FISA activities have not only been kept secret from the general public but from the Congress as well. As we stated above, much of this secrecy has been due to a lack of diligence on the part of Congress exercising its oversight responsibility. Equally disturbing, however, is the difficulty that a properly constituted Senate Committee, including a bipartisan group of senior senators, had in conducting effective oversight of the FISA process when we did attempt to perform our constitutional duties.

The Judiciary Committee’s ability to conduct its inquiry was seriously hampered by the initial failure of the DOJ and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to provide to the Committee an unclassified opinion of the FISA Court relevant to these matters. As noted above, we only received this opinion on August 22, 2002, in the middle of the August recess.

Many things are different now since the tragic events of last September, but one thing that has not changed is the United States Constitution. Congress must work to guarantee the civil liberties of our people while at the same time meet our obligations to America’s national security. Excessive secrecy and unilateral decision making by a single branch of government is not the proper method of striking that all important balance. We hope that, joining together, the Congress and the Executive Branch can work in a bipartisan manner to best serve the American people on these important issues. The stakes are too high for any other approach.


Patrick Leahy
U.S. Senator

Arlen Specter :applause:
U.S. Senator

Charles E. Grassley
U.S. Senator:

awake and aware of the sinister activities of these people.

Therein lies the rub... will a Republican leader bring about the ruination of another Republican? I seriously doubt it, for all Specter's "concern". When his "concern" leads him to raise the issue of impeachment, THEN I'll believe he's serious.

Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee did.

From her "Declaration of Conscience"

I would like to speak briefly and simply about a serious national condition. It is a national feeling of fear and frustration that could result in national suicide and the end of everything that we Americans hold dear. It is a condition that comes from the lack of effective leadership in either the Legislative Branch or the Executive Branch of our Government.

That leadership is so lacking that serious and responsible proposals are being made that national advisory commissions be appointed to provide such critically needed leadership.

I speak as briefly as possible because too much harm has already been done with irresponsible words of bitterness and selfish political opportunism. I speak as briefly as possible because the issue is too great to be obscured by eloquence. I speak simply and briefly in the hope that my words will be taken to heart.

I speak as a Republican. I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States Senator. I speak as an American.

The United States Senate has long enjoyed worldwide respect as the greatest deliberative body in the world. But recently that deliberative character has too often been debased to the level of a forum of hate and character assassination sheltered by the shield of congressional immunity.

---

I think that it is high time for the United States Senate and its members to do some soul-searching—for us to weigh our consciences—on the manner in which we are performing our duty to the people of America—on the manner in which we are using or abusing our individual powers and privileges.

I think that it is high time that we remembered that we have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution.

---

Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism:

The right to criticize;

The right to hold unpopular beliefs;

The right to protest;

The right of independent thought.

The exercise of these rights should not cost one single American citizen his reputation or his right to a livelihood nor should he be in danger of losing his reputation or livelihood merely because he happens to know someone who holds unpopular beliefs. Who of us doesn’t? Otherwise none of us could call our souls our own. Otherwise thought control would have set in.

The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as “Communists” or “Fascists” by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America. It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others.

Today our country is being psychologically divided by the confusion and the suspicions that are bred in the United States Senate to spread like cancerous tentacles of “know nothing, suspect everything” attitudes.

---

But I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.

I doubt if the Republican Party could—simply because I don’t believe the American people will uphold any political party that puts political exploitation above national interest. Surely we Republicans aren’t that desperate for victory.

I don’t want to see the Republican Party win that way. While it might be a fleeting victory for the Republican Party, it would be a more lasting defeat for the American people. Surely it would ultimately be suicide for the Republican Party and the two-party system that has protected our American liberties from the dictatorship of a one party system.

It seems the fascist underbelly of the Rethugs take control of the party every 20-30 years (once a generation?). The Democrats can't seem to remember that the last (latest?) time it happened it was a disaster.

We need to call Fascism by its true name as soon as it rears its' ugly little head. Shining a light on unspoken evil is the best way to make it scurry back into the corner. Otherwise we shall (eventually) end up in a one-party police state that will look surprisingly like the USSR.

and I don't think Specter has it in him to oppose BushCo.

but he is looking better every day. let's hope he has the strength to pursue this...

masters.

The republican leaders always find it convenient to use Specter for their purposes. For some incomprehensible reason, he as the reputation of being moderate and independent-thinking.

He will SAY ANYTHING to maintain this reputation. He will NOT do anything. He will do as he is told.


(Specter has been my Senator for more decades than I like to remember.)

and as soon as he heard they'd been doing it anyhow - he knew they'd decided he just didn't matter any more.

Just think, a senior US Senator doesn't outrank a mid level DOJ lawyer. Boy, that's got be a bit of an ego blow, huh?

Your country needs you.

Kicked and recommended.

tree house down. In the end he will do what he alawys does and vote with the WH. Part of his M.O. Makes him look moderate. A hall of fame piece of shit. His voting record is almost most identical to that other sterling Sen from PA, Ol' Man-on-Dog.

At the end of the day, Specter will give this administration a pass. Count on it.

Specter is one of the most arrogant pieces of feces walking the halls of congress.

It's about POWER. RAW UNBRIDLED POWER. He wants to be in the loop making decisions.

The subject matter he is barking about is immaterial. Though, it is nice that he's making Bush's life miserable this week

Next week he'll throw us under the bus and pound the gas pedal if it strokes his ego

He's probably just pissed he got left out of the loop. All these guys want power, and the chairmen of all the committees have alot of it and get pissed when someone circumvents their juice.

but, as your sig line states: "Anger is a gift." I hope the prick stays angry enough to shove a FISA warrant up *'s ass. IMPEACH.

He's been made a fool of here. His committee (and remember this is committee where he is chairman) was getting no answers for their request to provide need for broader investigative powers.

Now he knows they just felt it was too aggravating for them to justify this approval and they just set up wiretaps and surveillance whenever they felt like it. Every one a federal felony violation. It is his committee that all eyes are on as to why he didn't know this was going on. It all lands on his doorstep.

I'm telling you he's furious.

And your right, all eyes are on him as to why he didnt demand answers. He could get caught up in the mindset that he didnt demand info becuase he was letting it slide, so in order to defend himself, he will have to actually do the right thing.

he supposedly has. Perhaps he knew before that he no longer had power, but was uneasily content to keep quiet and retain the status that goes with his position. But now it's going to be clear to the other Senators that he's been duped. He can remain passive and look like a cuckold to his fellow Senators, thus losing the only thing he really had (prestige), or he can try to use the power that's supposed to go with his position and fight back. He might be outmaneuvered by other Bush toadies, but at least he'd go down fighting. Senators cling to their privileges pretty jealously. He may well lash out and if so, Bush beware. With the '06 elections coming up and Bush's popularity going down, down, down, Republican Senators might not back BushCo on something as controversial as warrantless spying on American citizens.

Pray enlighten us.

the meaning of one's life's work and that when we are dead and gone, what are we leaving behind.

My guess is that it may have awakened him in more ways than one. Also, I think these fascist bastards have been holding Specter's feet to the fire for a long time. I think it has just become too much for him and he's tired of it and doesn't feel he has anything to lose.

No friend of democracy there.

is an arrogant power hound and I don't trust him any further than I could throw him. I heard him speaking in defense of the Patriot Act and belittling those who dared disagree.

He fully intends to keep his powerful position as ranking Majority member and chair of one of the most powerful comittees in the Senate. Guess how he intends to do that?

I'm getting my surfboard ready to ride the wave.

extension of the patriot act voting on a 1 mo extension and sending it back to the senate today.

Or put another way, how many are riding the Busheney and DeLay wave?

Thanks for the heads up. Going to check it out now.

**waving hand wildly** By firmly placing his lips squarely between Junior's nekkid buttcheeks.

What do I win?

:rofl: