AG Gonzales:Congress should approve ruling SCOTUS already struck down

[dajoki]

NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/washington/18cnd-gonzales.html?ex=1310875200&en=bf8aa8bc62eb31ec&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Bush Said to Have Blocked Eavesdropping Inquiry

By DAVID STOUT
Published: July 18, 2006

WASHINGTON, July 18 — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said today that Congress should consider simply approving the military-commission procedures for handling suspected terrorists that the Supreme Court has already struck down.

Mr. Gonzales, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, strongly defended the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism strategy, and he sounded grudging in his acceptance of the recent ruling by the justices, who concluded that the administration lacked the authority to set up the tribunals without lawmakers’ approval.

Mr. Gonzales also told the senators that President Bush personally blocked Justice Department lawyers from pursuing an internal inquiry into the administration’s warrantless eavesdropping program. “The president of the United States makes the decision,” Mr. Gonzales said, by way of explaining why members of the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility were not allowed to go forward.

The attorney general’s comment that perhaps Congress should simply ratify the procedures already put in place came during a heated exchange with Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the panel’s ranking Democrat. The senator referred to last week’s Congressional testimony by Steven G. Bradbury, an acting assistant attorney general, who urged the lawmakers to bring “clarity and certainty” to the situation.

Mr. Leahy asked whether, in fact, it was the administration’s stance that Congress should just approve the procedures already set up.

[notadmblnd]

1. sure he's going to say that..

it's time to play cover your ass.. If congress doesn't make their illegal acts legal, they might find themselves subject to prosecution.

Ahhhhh, I love the smell of desperation in the evening.

[dajoki]

3. Yeah, but will they cave to their threats? n/t

[rodeodance]

2. Here is Gondy's response:

.....“Senator Leahy,” Mr. Gonzales began, “I think our position is we care less about where we began; we care more about where we end up. And we’d like to — ”

“No, no, no,” Mr. Leahy interjected. “The question is very specific. Is it the administration’s position, as one of your assistants suggested, that we should simply ratify the military-commission procedures that the president designed and the Supreme Court struck down in Hamdan?”

“That would certainly be one alternative that Congress could consider, Senator Leahy,” the attorney general replied.

In the Hamdan decision, the Supreme Court held that members of Al Qaeda are protected under the Geneva Conventions, contrary to what the administration had contended. The justices also held that the president had lacked the power on his own to set up military commissions to try the detainees without getting Congressional approval.

[Elidor]

4. Oh, he's sly

He just sidles in there and gives the senators those fuck-me eyes, and says, "Approve the military-commissions, bitches. Approve them. You know you want to. Just do it for me. Bark like a dog for me, bitches."

He concludes his testimony: "I loves me some waterboarding. Gets me off. You know you like it, too, bitches, so don't get me started. Just gimme what I want. Approve the commissions. Don't make me whip out the president's Dick and slap you with him. 'Cause we can do that too if you don't like it."

/rudepundit