Is Chaney Taking Over?

01/20/2006

by Paul Munnis

No sooner had Dick Chaney’s plane landed back on U.S. soil then it appears that he pushed aside Mr. Bush and took over the management of the scandal over domestic spying. Since he has arrived he has pushed hard to assert that it was only a little bit of spying, that our government needs to spy on its people, and that it’s all legal and above the board.

The recent attempt by the government to co-opt Google to release search engine results on the use of Internet searches for spying efforts on the public just adds more fuel to the fire.

Today Dick Chaney and Alberto Gonzales released a written defense of their position for illegal spying. The government is also trying to downplay the attempts to co-opt Google.

We all acknowledge that there are times when the government has to spy on its own people during time of war. That is not the issue here though.

Our Congress worked to set up a legal procedure to permit it.

The process allows for up to 72 hours to pass after a spying incident to permit time for the government spies to make their case to a FISA judge and to obtain a warrant in arrears, meaning it’s got a very high likelihood of just being rubber-stamped. The FISA judges are on call 24 x 7.

Bush and Chaney have chosen to ignore those provisions and thus they have set themselves above the law.

Just a little bit of law breaking is not a good defense in this case either. They had a major option to ask Congress for clarification of the law rather than to just go off and to break it and now pretend like they are as innocent as new born lambs. Asking Congress for clarification is not a tough request since they own Congress and it is proven itself to be subservient to the White House.

They also have an opportunity to ask Congress for lawmaking where Search Engines are concerned. They have made no such effort.

Bush and Mr. Chaney are both complicit in this matter of making choices to defy the law and to set up secret operations. Both must be held accountable for their roles in this illegal behavior.

The way that they are behaving by not admitting this was a mistake seems to be a mandate to appoint a special prosecutor to get at the full truth. This is necessary because few in our nation trust the GOP to police itself. We would also point out that Alberto Gonzales could also be fired over this since he has acted as both advisor and defender.

It’s getting time for closure on many things regarding the Bush Administration and their behavior. Crime, corruption, lies and deception, are not the way to the hearts of the American people. We are a nation of laws and we have scofflaws in charge of our government. Some of us actually care about America and we want a better present and future for our nation.

In the meantime we are wondering about Mr. Chaney and his assertion that we will not make a truce with Bin Laden. It is Mr. Bush’s job to say that and not Mr. Chaney’s.  It’s a strategic decision and not a private one yet we have neither heard nor seen any strategic analysis in response to Bin Laden’s offer. A truce means that both sides lay down arms and stop the killing. At a cost of $160 Billion per year to run a war in Iraq one could at least look at what the guy is proposing.

It is the job of the Secretary of State to respond to such proposals. In my opinion Ms. Rice should have offered to meet with Bin Laden in order to determine the full nature of his offer. A senior diplomat from our State Department should be off meeting with him right now. This is a historic opportunity to open a dialog with Bin Laden and to see him face to face for the first time since 9/11/2001 happened. Remember, he has been in hiding and he is now offering to talk and to negotiate a truce. That is a huge breakthrough for the USA.

For Dick Chaney to reject this out of hand and without further investigation is a huge mistake. For Bush to permit it is even more of a mistake. For Condoleeza Rice to cede her job to Dick Chaney is even worse. The parents of soldiers serving in Iraq deserve better consideration than just a rejection out of hand and without any explanation.

People are really sick of the Bush/Chaney attempts to divide America, to play the 911 card to the hilt, to continue the war in Iraq at all costs, to hide behind the legitimate concerns that Americans have for national security and to continually politicize everything to the (n)th degree.

Enough already!