Gore Blasts Bush for Wiretapping

singrdave

Join Date 07/2004

Gore Blasts Bush for Wiretapping

Who knew what, when? Gore can answer 'none of the above'.

External Link

In a classic example of "preaching to the choir", Al Gore spoke on MLK Day regarding Bush and wiretapping before a forum of members of the Liberty Coalition, a civil liberties advocacy group, and the American Constitution Society for Law and Public Policy, a liberal legal group. They were on the edge of their chairs while Gore reviled the Bush Administration for what he deemed to be an utter disregard for the Constitution and the laws of the US.

From AXcessNews.com: In speaking before several civil liberty advocacy groups in Washington, former vice president Al Gore criticized President Bush over his administration's policy of evesdropping in on Americans phone conversations without getting a warrant from the court first. Gore said Bush repeatedly broke the law and ignorred people's civil rights in the process, often raising his voice as he blasted the presidency.

Gore called on the attorney general to investigate the matter, recommending further that Congress hold "comprehensive - not just superficial - hearings." The former vice president even blamed telephone companies and said that they should stop cooperating in illegal activities like surveillance without proof of a court order to do so.

It is this same disrespect for America's Constitution which has now brought our republic to the brink of a dangerous breach in the fabric of the Constitution," Mr. Gore said. "And the disrespect embodied in these apparent mass violations of the law is part of a larger pattern of seeming indifference to the Constitution that is deeply troubling to millions of Americans in both political parties."

And Albert Gore Jr. would know what about this whole wiretap scandal? Nothing at all. He's been out of the White House since 2001. Nothing at all, other than what he's read in the New York Times or what he's spoonfed from other pundits that he chooses to believe. At one point he was a heartbeat from the Presidency, and he feels that gives his words regarding the current situation more gravity. But he's so out of the loop that he doesn't know anything that's really going on.

See, what Gore's audience chooses to ignore is that Gore is no longer a part of the administration and therefore would no direct access to information for him to support his claims of the Bush administration breaching Constitutional law. He's just literally echoing what the media has already played up - and the audience bought hook, line, and sinker.

Al Gore has been out of the Washington DC political scene since 2001 and now promotes himself as a professor and entrepreneur, but what he does best is sell his services in speaking engagements - like the one he soapboxed at in DC yesterday.

"

Locked Post

Advanced Search

Watch this post

Do not email me updates for this post Email me updates for this post

Successfully updated karma reason!

Funny thing is that in none of the articles you wrote "lets see what the courts say" or gave any benefit of the doubt that Bush may have not done anything wrong and it was all for the good of the US. You only began to address the issue of "let's see what the courts say" after many concluded that there is nothing concrete to say that Bush actually violated any law, that all the stories were just speculation and basically Bush bashing

So is this how it works?

We give COL Gene a hard time for never ever listening to people who disagree with him. Then when he does, we accuse him of hypocrisy?

Geez, give the poor guy a break. A man can change his mind.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Island Dog

Join Date 06/2003

+1051

There are a number of Republican members of Congress that question the actions of Bush!

Col, how does that somehow validate your point? So what. Who is it? McCain or some other RINO?

f it makes you feel better lets just go for impeachment of Bush and Cheney. They have done some many things that have harmed this country I think it is a GOOD IDEA!

In your opinion as usual col. I really wish the left would go for impeachment. It would just show again how stupid the left is.

Successfully updated karma reason!

let us not forget the Clinton/gore white house did simular actions, but oh yeh I forgot when a liberal does it, it's called looking out for the people, and when a republican does the same thing, it's a crime, Impeach Bush, all politicians are whores, nope I will not demean whores this way.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Col, how does that somehow validate your point? So what. Who is it? McCain or some other RINO?

How about Sam Brownback?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you confident that the administration has acted lawfully in this case?

BROWNBACK: I think we need to hold hearings on it and we’re going to. Both in the intelligence committee, there will be closed hearings and then the judiciary committee will have open hearings.

I think we need to look at this case and this issue. I am troubled by what the basis for the grounds that the administration says that they did these on, the legal basis, and I think we need to look at that far more broadly and understand it a great deal.

I think this is something that bears looking into and us to be able to establish a policy within constitutional frameworks of what a president can or cannot do.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You don’t think the 9/11 resolution gave the president the authority for this program?

BROWNBACK: It didn’t, in my vote. I voted for that resolution. That was a week after 9/11. There was nothing you were going to do to stop us from going to war in Afghanistan, but there was no discussion in anything that I was around that that gave the president a broad surveillance authority with that resolution.

Dick Lugar?

BLITZER: So you want hearings? You want hearings?

LUGAR: I do. I think this is an appropriate time, without going back and should the president have ever tried to listen to a call coming from Afghanistan, probably of course. And in the first few weeks we made many concessions in the Congress because we were at war and we were under attack.

We still have the possibility of that going on so we don’t want to obviate all of this, but I think we want to see what in the course of time really works best and the FISA Act has worked pretty well from the time of President Carter’s day to the current time.

Lindsay Graham?

SCHIEFFER: The Secretary of State said this morning that the president has statutory and constitutional authorization to do what he did. So I’ll start with Senator Graham. Does he have that authority, Senator?

LINDSEY GRAHAM: If he has the authority to go around the FISA court, which is a court to accommodate the law of the war of terror, the FISA Act was–created a court set up by the chief justice of the United States to allow a rapid response to requests for surveillance activity in the war on terror. I don’t know of any legal basis to go around that. There may be some, but I’m not aware of it. And here’s the concern I have. We can’t become an outcome-based democracy. Even in a time of war, you have to follow the process, because that’s what a democracy is all about: a process.

Successfully updated karma reason!

I'm not sure if you'd consider Lugar a RINO, but surely not Graham and Brownback.

Successfully updated karma reason!

JillUser

Join Date 11/2003

+17

let us not forget the Clinton/gore white house did simular actions, but oh yeh I forgot when a liberal does it, it's called looking out for the people

I was hoping someone would point that out.

all politicians are whores, nope I will not demean whores this way.

You so funny Modman

Successfully updated karma reason!

Back after a one year hiatus...

Reply #28 By: Citizen Moderateman - 1/17/2006 8:08:13 PM
let us not forget the Clinton/gore white house did simular actions, but oh yeh I forgot when a liberal does it, it's called looking out for the people, and when a republican does the same thing, it's a crime, Impeach Bush, all politicians are whores, nope I will not demean whores this way.

From MSNBC.com:
McClellan said the Clinton-Gore administration had engaged in warrantless physical searches, and he cited an FBI search of the home of CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames without permission from a judge. He said Clinton’s deputy attorney general, Jamie Gorelick, had testified before Congress that the president had the inherent authority to engage in physical searches without warrants.

“I think his hypocrisy knows no bounds,” McClellan said of Gore.

But at the time of the Ames search in 1993 and when Gorelick testified a year later, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act required warrants for electronic surveillance for intelligence purposes, but did not cover physical searches. The law was changed to cover physical searches in 1995 under legislation that Clinton supported and signed. (my emphasis added)

McClellan is siting a case from the Clinton/Gore admin when it was still legal to do physical searches AND McClellan did not mention that the law was changed with the Clinton admins blessing. I don't know how many people saw the article on lexicologists word of the year, but this it...truthiness

Successfully updated karma reason!

You're right! He lost to... get this... George W. Bush! Hahahahahah!!!

On that we agree!

Successfully updated karma reason!

RugbyShawn:

Back after a one year hiatus...

Welcome back! Glad to see you.

an FBI search of the home of CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames without permission from a judge.

I'm not as up on the whole Ames situation as I should be... was that evidence admissible considering it was obtained without a warrant?

davad70, channeling Lindsay Graham:

We can’t become an outcome-based democracy. Even in a time of war, you have to follow the process, because that’s what a democracy is all about: a process.

I agree that the ends do not justify the means. But, according to the Administration, the Attorney General and the Justice Dept. signed off on the program before it ever started.
While I agree that there is a constitutional question and a separation of powers question and a whole host of questions regarding this situation, it is my hope that a full, unswervable, unpoliticized investigation will ferret out the truth and the legality of the matter.

Successfully updated karma reason!