Gonzales: Sherriff, Judge and Jury

E.J. Dionne, in his opinion piece today in the WaPo, Why Democrats Caved, gives us his report and assessment of how the Senate passed this bill and then, in his words, "dumped" it on the House before leaving town for summer break. 

According to Dionne, Pelosi and many House Democrats felt that they had negotiated in good faith with Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence, on preserving some oversight. 

They sought to give the Bush administration the authority it needed to intercept communications involving foreign nationals in terrorism investigations while preserving some oversight.

But the administration held out for granting McConnell and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales more power while seriously circumscribing the role of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The Senate's Democratic leadership, lacking the votes to pass a measure more to the House's liking, gave the administration what it wanted.

Dionne reports that some House members in a meeting with Pelosi were so passionate about standing up to the administration on this bill that they were willing to risk that Bush would bash Democrats on "national security".  They were even willing to delay their vacation, stay in town, and fight the important constitutional issues that they thought were at stake.

Interestingly, Dionne reports that, although the Democrats acknowledge that McConnell never explicitly agreed to Pelosi's proposal of preserving some oversight on surveillance, it seems that McConnell was being directed by the White House on this issue and that McConnell was playing "an ambiguous role".

"Could something happen over August?" Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.) asked in an interview. "Sure it could. What bothered me is that too many Democrats allowed that fear to turn into a demand for some atrocious legislation."
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It's not even clear that new legislation was required; Holt, for one, believes many of the problems with handling interceptions involving foreign nationals are administrative in nature and that beefing up and reorganizing the staff around the FISA court might solve the outstanding problems.

But if legislation was needed, there were many ways to grant necessary authority while preserving real oversight. The Democrats got trapped, and they punted. The Republicans have never met a national security issue they're not willing to politicize. This is no way to run a superpower.

So here we are again with another opportunity to stand up to the President, who it appears only wanted to grab more power, and some of the Senate Democrats caved.

So one questions the reason to vote "yes" to this legislation that some Democrat members of the Intelligence Committee gave to other Senators who voted likewise. It seems odd given the account that Dione has laid out.

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