Getting Somewhere?

The afternoon session was much better- much more focused questioning.

For a detailed recap of today's back-and-forths, check out Firedoglake.

ThinkProgress also has some highlights.

The bottom line is that the Attorney General did not come out looking good. He dodged and weaved at every turn. His legal arguments (most falling back nonsensically on the Afghanistan resolution) were dismissed by almost all members of the committee, except for the hacks like Sessions and Grassley who don't see what all this fuss is about. When asked to elaborate on the extent of how the executive branch is interpreting the President's power (ie. can he wiretap domestic political enemies or search people's homes without warrants?) or if there is any limit to this power, Gonzales refused to answer. And when asked to answer the key question of whether or not innocent Americans are being spied on, Gonzales replied, "I can’t give you absolute assurance". Read into that what you will.

The best questioning of the day came from Senators Feingold and Leahy. Sen. Feingold worked well exposing as false many of the talking points the administration has put forth, including the lie that previous Presidents have done the same thing that Bush has. Sen. Leahy had some good questions and when Gonzales kept refusing to answer, Leahy quipped "I'm sorry, Mr. Attorney General. I forgot you can’t answer any questions that might be relevant...".

For me, the most illuminating responses did actually come from that particular round of questioning from Sen. Leahy. There were two key revelations. First, Leahy asked Gonzales when the administration decided to authorize this warrantless wiretapping program. He asked if it was before or after the passing of the Patriot Act. Gonzales reluctantly revealed that it was before. So we now know that at the time in September 2001 when the administration was asking Congress to pass the Patriot Act to give them new powers to fight terrorism that the administration had already given themselves all sorts of new powers in secret! Why didn't they ask Congress to add this authority to the Patriot Act? The only conclusion is that the authority wasn't the issue; it was just a blanket powergrab.

The second key revelation was after Sen. Leahy asked when it was that the administration consulted with the top intelligence committee members about all this, since the administration is using those briefings to blow off that concerns that the White House is hiding anything. Gonzales responded that the briefing occurred sometime in 2004. Sen. Leahy was incredulous that this didn't happen until three years later. Of course, we know that something else happened in 2004- someone leaked the story to the NY Times, the administration became aware of this, and requested the Times keep the story quiet (which they did... for a year or so). It's logical to conclude then that the leak occurred before the briefing with the intelligence committee. I believe Sen. Leahy did hint at this connection, but I cannot recall. So one would then assume that the only reason the administration bothered to go the committee at that time was because they knew the program was leaked and they wanted to cover their asses before Congress found out. Nope, that's not suspicious at all. Sen. Leahy said that he is glad that we have a media to keep us informed, because the administration refuses to do so.

The day ended with Sen. Specter again reaffirming that he doesn't buy the administration's strained legal defense of the spying program. We'll how much that actually means at the conclusion of the hearings. And that still does not excuse Specter's refusal to swear in Gonzales, an event which cast a shadow on the day's event.

Also, I just wanted to add that Sen. Sessions stooped to a new low (and no, not just trotting out the relative of a 9/11 victim during lunch) earlier in the day. Blowing off the issue of whether the President is impeding on civil liberties, Sessions said that 3,000 Americans no longer have civil rights. Because they are dead. Because they were killed on 9/11. (!) By the way, you can contact the nice Senator and let him know what you think of his use of 9/11 for cheap partisan purposes.

PS- See video of Sen. Durbin's exchange with a dittohead Powerline blogger- here.