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Domestic spying provides GOP loyalty test

February 5, 2006 06:38 AM / Bush Leagues .

Since George W. Bush became president, Republicans in Congress have nearly always marched in lock step with him. In large measure, their clout as lawmakers was enhanced by standing shoulder to shoulder with the president, the Los Angeles Times reports. But that equation may be changing, and a crucial test comes next week when a Senate hearing opens into Bush's domestic spying program.

The hearing's tenor rests on a central question: Do the Republicans who control Capitol Hill have greater loyalty to Congress as an institution or to the president who heads their political party?

The National Security Agency controversy may be the first of the Bush presidency to place Republicans' roles as lawmakers and politicians so directly in conflict. Some GOP lawmakers have been less vocal than usual in defending the president, a sign that many have not made up their minds which role to put first.

"I think everyone wants to keep an open mind," said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a member of the Judiciary and Intelligence committees. "These are difficult issues to resolve."

Critics accuse the president of bypassing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act passed by Congress in 1978 and ordering spying and wiretapping on U.S. soil without the warrants or judicial review the law requires.

The accusation goes to the heart of the concept of the separation of powers. When, if ever, does the president have the right to ignore or skirt an act of Congress?

As lawmakers, Republicans' instinct would be to protect the prerogatives of the legislative branch, insisting the president "faithfully execute the laws" of the country, as required by the Constitution. But as members of the GOP, their instinct would be to stand by their president, portraying the controversy as yet another example of Capitol Hill's partisan politics.

So far, both themes can be heard in Republicans' public comments; it remains to be seen which will prevail.

Read the rest in the Los Angeles Times


© Copyright 2006 by Capitol Hill Blue

Comments

Any Republican who backs Bush on his spying program will not get my vote or support. It is time for the GOP to stand up to this wannabe dictator.

Posted by Callie at February 5, 2006 06:54 AM

You ask: "Do the Republicans who control Capitol Hill have greater loyalty to Congress as an institution or to the president who heads their political party?" Hasn't this already been answered with Alito and his bias toward a unitary executive?

A powerful executive, a co-conspiring Congress, a stacked court, and Diebold voting technology all cooperate to facilitate long-term corruption with impunity. Remove any of those four legs and the table falls over. No one is gonna make any waves.

Any in whom might still flicker a patriotic instinct to put their country over their party must be paralyzed with fear of overwhelming retribution. "Hey, that's a nice little operation you're running there, Senator -- it'd be too bad if someone in the press found out about it."

Posted by Skydog at February 5, 2006 12:34 PM

Oh, those poor poor.. well actually very rich.. politicians. What a horrible choice: loyalty to an institution that (at least in theory) exists to help benefit everyone and uphold freedom, or loyalty to an incompetent troglodyte that doesn't remotely deserve it. How can anyone be expected to make such an excruciating choice? Cruel, cruel it is.

Funny how both those loyalties fail to recognize the alleged purpose of their jobs: to serve the people.

Anyone remember that?

Anyone?

Posted by at February 5, 2006 03:13 PM

Our system doesn't work when the legislative division sticks like glue to the President. It take a balance of power to make our system work. We put those Conservative congressmen in power in 1994 and it will be up to us to take them out in 2006!

Posted by Sandy at February 5, 2006 04:47 PM

There's an old saying ... "Give 'em enough rope, and they will hang themselves with it" ... this spying on American citizens ... most of whom have been cleared of ANY type of 'criminal' activity ... unless you count Bushwit's assertations that make it a crime to speak out against HIS morally corrupt agenda full of lies ... will quite likely be the 'noose' around Bushwit's neck ... IF the American people unite and voice THEIR outrage to each member of Congress presiding over their district.

Rats DO desert a 'sinking ship' ... and when it comes to their jobs ... they just might obtain hearing 'aids' and start listening to their own voters ... they WANT their 'jobs'

A town in Vermont is holding a 'town hall' meeting ... on the agenda ... impeaching Bushwit ... and if it passes ... they are calling up their own Senator ... to request it formally be added to the floor ... or else ... now ... if we ALL follow suit ... this nightmare CAN be over ... SOON

Posted by Lace at February 6, 2006 10:50 AM

If our great country is not to go facist with the likes of G.W. Bush and Dick Cheney we should immediately start the impeachment proceedings against both of these evil men. Cheney should be put on trial for treason for profiteering during a war by accepting over hundreds of thousands of dollars from Halliburton, while in office, and Bush for treating our constitution as a piece of toilet paper

Posted by Emile Mann at February 6, 2006 12:03 PM

Yes Libby lied but he had very good teachers in Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rumsfield, et al. When are these people going to face facts - they are taking this country further and further down the toilet. Better yet - when are the loyals going to see what is happening and realize that eventually it will be them that is down the toilet with all us little guys? May God have mercy on this country.

Posted by Eleanor at February 6, 2006 01:21 PM

Yes, yes, yes to all of the above. Please, let's get him out of the White House before it's too late...or is it already too late???

Posted by Barbara at February 6, 2006 02:19 PM

Keep your eyes on the British set-up for an Iran and/or Syria War NOW- in the next month. Cheney is run by the likes of George Schultz and the Synarchist Bankers who know the WHOLE FINANCIAL SYSTEM is going up for grabs and they and their hedge funds want to "own" the world when the bubbles burst. Go to the larouchepub.com website for how the British run the operations, using the old Venetian oligarchical methods of getting everyone else to fight each other, so these families can maintain control.
On the ordering of impeachment and indictments, MAKE SURE CHENEY IS KNOCKED OUT FIRST.

Posted by Gerald Pechenuk at February 6, 2006 02:57 PM

God.....father in heaven.........please make the entire Bush family go away.........Amen

Posted by at February 6, 2006 06:42 PM

Liars, criminals, sociopaths running our Country.
Even if this guy is convicted someone will pardon him and he'll resurface somewhere in govt. or as a govt. contractor.

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