With his attack-dog Sen. Chuck "Chuckie the Cheese” Schumer, D-N.Y., foaming at the mouth and Sen. Ted "The Swimmer” Kennedy, D-MA., chomping at the bit, Leahy will try to portray the Attorney General and, by implication, the President, as embarking on a dangerous, slippery slope of "extra-constitutional" efforts to combat terrorism.
Pay no mind to the posturing that "our civil liberties are at risk" and it is therefore essential that the Senate conduct oversight hearings to "protect the American people."
Hogwash.
First of all, the President’s executive order establishing the prerogative that certain enemy warriors
Why in the world is Leahy going to grill Ashcroft on this issue?
After all, it is the Department of Defense, under Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who is charged with establishing the parameters and rules for such proceedings, should the President ever invoke them.
The reason for tagging Ashcroft on this one is that he is perceived to be more vulnerable to such partisan attacks since the Democrats "set the stage" with their despicable, false charges leveled against him during his confirmation hearings.
Ashcroft served admirably as Missouri’s attorney general and governor, as well as its U.S. Senator, until he lost his bid for reelection to the ghost of Mel Carnahan – the sitting governor who died prior to Election Day and was replaced on the ballot by his widow, under questionable circumstances.
Unlike Al Gore, who put the nation through turmoil and a constitutional hell for thirty-seven days, John Ashcroft was man enough not to challenge the extremely close election results and the highly suspicious and improper Democrat hijacking of the election by keeping polls in minority areas open beyond the legal time for the close of balloting.
John Ashcroft put the people of his state, as well as the U.S. Senate, above his own personal political interests, though he would have been unquestionably justified in pursuing various legal and political remedies.
The Attorney General was unmercifully, wrongly and purposely incorrectly portrayed by senate Democrats and their leftwing allies as some sort of racial pariah.
Nothing could have been further from the truth, but the left cares not about the truth, only about wielding political power to impose their know-it-all will on the American people.
Their attack on John Ashcroft then, as now, is based on nothing more than a perceived political opportunity to fool the public with lies and innuendo thereby enhancing their own standing at the expense of damaging the President and his administration.
This could well backfire, as the Attorney General has led and conducted the activities of the Department of Justice in fine fashion, with sensitivity, with strength, and with steadfast dedication to the Constitution and laws of the land; and the public knows this.
These simple facts notwithstanding, the Democrat effort to score political points on any target they perceive as vulnerable will not be thwarted, so onward against Ashcroft they march.
Rumsfeld, on the other hand, has a stellar public image and reputation gained through his successful ministering of the War on Terrorism in the Afghanistan battle as well as the overwhelmingly positive reaction to his frequent press briefings.
So, the cowardly Leahy will once again ignore the facts and trample the truth for what can only be partisan political purposes. Otherwise he would be harrumphing and tsk-tsking with Rumsfeld in the well of the Senate hearing room.
But he possesses neither the guts nor the statesmanship to do that.
Besides, this entire issue is a fraud in the first instance, given that the military tribunals have absolutely nothing to do with U.S. citizens! The President clearly outlined that only those foreigners who assisted or abetted in attacks on the U.S. could be brought to justice in this manner.
To his credit, President Bush has several times vigorously defended his decision to issue this executive order – and pointed out that hero-of-the-left FDR did the same, with Supreme Court approval – and can take comfort from the widespread public support for his leadership in this regard.
As for the other "pressing" constitutional issues, such as questioning foreigners who have recently entered the U.S. from those same countries as did the murderous hijackers, and the effort to question, and hold, others who either violated our immigration laws or are material witnesses to illegal acts, there are no excesses.
Nevertheless, listen to the pious condescension and watch the self-important posturing at the hearing today, and take note of the wall-to-wall coverage these kangaroo proceedings will no doubt get from the leftwing media, who conveniently declined to cover the
All of this during a time of war, with U.S. troops in harm’s way engaging the enemy in battle.
Not that
But propriety and decency are not character traits evidenced by Leahy and his Democrat comrades on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Today is a sad day for the U.S. Congress and a sad day in American history.
Democrats should be ashamed, but, alas, they have no shame.
They learned that at the feet of the master in shameless behavior and the politics of personal gain at the public expense, Bill Clinton.
Dan Frisa represented New York in the United States Congress and served four terms in the New York State Assembly. E-mail Dan:
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