Did Arlen Spector know?

[malaise]

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/03/13/the_quality_of_justice.php

<snip>
On one day in December 2006 “Main Justice,” as the Department of Justice’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., is known, fired seven of the country’s United States Attorneys. Another who is considered part of the purge was fired months earlier. They are prosecutors responsible for enforcement of criminal law in the federal courts around the country.

The president has always had the power to fire U.S. attorneys, and, indeed, incoming presidents of both stripes generally remove all sitting prosecutors and replace them with new people. But until the Patriot Act was reauthorized last March, new prosecutors had to be vetted and approved by the Senate. Thanks, however, to a provision slipped into that bill by one of Senator Arlen Spector’s aides—rather tellingly without the senator’s knowledge —the president now has power to appoint replacement prosecutors without involving a coordinate branch.

Previously, local senators and federal judges had a say in who the U.S. attorney would be, so this not only shifts authority north-west from Capitol Hill: Scorning federalism, the Patriot Act provision pulls power back to the center.

It should thus come as no surprise that some of the recently appointed are close political allies of the White House. The new U.S. attorney for Arkansas, for example, Timothy Griffin, was an aide to presidential adviser Karl Rove. Calling the Senate confirmation process a “circus,” Griffin has said he would not stand for Senate confirmation for the same office he was willing to accept by midnight presidential selection.

[BuyingThyme]

1. Yes, absolutely.

[madokie]

2. I think there is a good chance that the spector knew

theres been a couple times I thought he would do what is right only to see at the last minute he turns over, I don't trust him for a second

[malaise]

5. I don't trust him for a second

Bingo.

[acmavm]

3. Hell yeah he knew. He's a smarmy conniving old bastard.

[IChing]

4. Yes,specter scares the shit out of me and his magic bullet.

He should spell his name the way I did in my response.

[malaise]

7. LOL

Touche!

[sam sarrha]

17. i prefer the spelling 'Arlan Spinctor'

[IChing]

19. Specter

A ghost
Something widely feared as a possible
unpleasant or dangerous occurrence.

JFK and the magic bullet theory was all his.
He pops up every-time something is really going wrong in the US.

[Gabi Hayes]

6. Every time I learn something new about Specter, it lowers my opinion;

and I thought that was impossible

from the TPM link, which discusses how Specter's STAFF, unbeknownst to him (!!!!), slipped this highly unconstitutional provision into PATRIOT.... a typical response:

"It's always the staff, isn't it? The elected officials collect fat salaries and pensions and health benefits and are responsible for nothing; when something goes wrong, they just point the finger at the hired help, who apparently are really running the country.

So: If Specter is telling the truth and his staff made a material change in the law without anyone who actually has the Constitutional authority to make law knowing about it, how many people has he fired for such unauthorized tinkering, and why haven't we heard about that yet?"

will the other senators STAND for this sort of BS response from Specter?

[malaise]

8. I hope not

but this is really scary. I don't believe him.

[Gabi Hayes]

10. I'll never forget that series of faux-outraged responses Specter displayed

awhile back, threatening to do this, to call the president on that, over a range of subjects, then EACH time backing down, while the story faded into nothingness, of course abetted by the media, who stopped covering each story

as always, just turn the tables, had this happened during the Clinton admin, and a democrat had succumbed to Clinton WH pressure on ANY subject. we'd never have heard the end of the story

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

9. orphan provisions without authorship or acknowledgment

"a provision slipped into that bill by one of Senator Arlen Specter’s aides—rather tellingly without the senator’s knowledge" this is f!@#ing crazy!!!!

How pathetic is it that the United States, Leader of the Free World , has such a shabby law writing process that we constantly hear about "slipped in" provisions that no one will acknowledge or own up to and yet somehow pass any scrutiny and get signed into law. Maybe a mole for Osama can "slip in" a provision that we fund Al Qaida and give OBL a Medal of Freedom for uniting the US against terrorism. How long would it take for someone to notice?

We pay these a!@#$le Senators and Congressman salaries to at the very least know what they are yeaing and naying to. I think most of them should be booted out for negligence and malfeasance in running the affairs of the governed.

[Gabi Hayes]

11. exactly!!! and ON WHOSE AUTHORITY did those aides SLIP this

provision, ANATHEMA to the constitutional checks and balances between executive/legislative branch, into PATRIOT?

this question NEEDS to be answered, and those responsible (and I don't mean the aides...can you imagine some pipsqueak popping something so momentous into a bill?) brought to task.

WHOSE idea was this?

why aren't dem senators going APOPLECTIC about this?

Hey, Russ! isn't this a matter of paramount importance to you, the SENATORS? this destroys one of the FEW POWERS you have over the Unitary Executive. you do realize this, don't you?

you ALL do; now why aren't you doing something about it?

[malaise]

12. Correct

WHOSE idea was this? Dems need answers now.

[Gabi Hayes]

14. is it just that their plates are SO FULL with other things that they just

don't have time to respond to EVERYTHING?

this BLIZZARD of illegality is maybe the most important factor protecting the BFEE from having their asses waxed.

there's just WAY TO MUCH that they've done. it's almost impossible to list all the stuff that's 'happened' on their watch; impossible to keep track, much less correct

we're SO VERY screwed....

[malaise]

15. Is a bill that is amended after

it has left Congress legal?

[malaise]

16. This is frightening n/t

[JerseygirlCT]

18. Bottom line is accountability. And until the US electorate is

willing to actually hold them accountable, this kind of crap will continue, forever and ever.

It's up to those elected officials to actually do their jobs and know what they're signing for. And it's up to us to toss them when they don't.

All that requires a whole lot of people actually paying attention, which is the fatal flaw in all this. I'd bet there are many more people who could give you the last detail about American Idol than could even name both their senators and their representative.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

20. There is no accountability because they all choose to have no accountability

let's face it - we have the technology. Every single line of every single bill could have a code and a date next to it that identifies authorship and date of revision. If somehow a change is not accounted for, then the sponsor of the bill HAS to be responsible by default. Copies could be archived so it would be easy to trace the development of a bill. There. How hard is that?

[malaise]

21. Not hard at all

but do they even read the bills.

[malaise]

23. They are all accountable to special interests

and to party interests. Fugg the people :sarcasm:

[goodhue]

13. hell ya

I suspect a lot of folks inside the beltway knew. The outrage is a result of the press attention.

[enough]

22. This is a very interesting article, well worth reading the whole thing.

another snip>

Filling U.S. positions with Administration allies has further pernicious consequences, even beyond these very obvious effects. As Berkeley criminologist Jonathan Simon points out in an important new book, Governing Through Crime, prosecutors have become archetypal figures in American politics. Along with state political offices, the office of the federal prosecutor has become the most important launching pad for national political office in the last few decades. The list of former prosecutors who aspire or have aspired to national elected and appointed office includes, among many others, Rudolph Giuliani, William Daley, John Kerry, Bob Dole, Earl Warren and Edwin Meese.

Attorneys are not only lined up well to go into politics; they are also en route to the federal bench. It is no secret that the Republican party has made a concerted (and largely successful) effort to stack the federal bench in the past few years. Recent judicial nominees have included people such as William Hayes, who worked hand-in-glove with John Yoo and David Addington to gut military interrogation standards. Stacking the U.S. attorneys office would simply be the next step.

The administration’s assault on the integrity of American law has not been limited to the Justice Department. Military lawyers tasked with defending detainees in military custody have also found themselves under siege. Earlier this month, Morris Davis, chief military prosecutor for the Guantánamo tribunals, intimated none-too-subtly that military defense lawyers who complained too strenuously about the unfairness of the military commissions system established by legislation last year might be subject to criminal prosecution for their statements. This comes after another military defense lawyer was effectively pushed out of the Navy for his vigorous (and first-rate) legal advocacy on behalf of another detainee client.

And, in an ironic twist, just as the extent of administration meddling in the justice system at home is becoming apparent, White House allies are mounting an assault on other countries’ efforts to protect the rule of law against American law-breaking overseas.

snip

(Goes on to discuss " extraordinary rendition.)

[malaise]

24. Wow - this is being called the Spector

amendment on WJ this morning. To the Ethics Committee.

[Ino]

25. Specter implies it's the other senators' fault for not noticing it

He keeps repeating: "That provision was in a Conference Report which was available for examination for some three months... as I said was open for public inspection for more than three months... the Conference Report wasn’t acted on for months and at that time this provision was subject to review..."

and yet he claims "The first I found out about the change in the PATRIOT Act occurred a few weeks ago"

So let me get this straight -- Spector claims he HIMSELF didn't know about a provision HIS OWN AIDE added to a bill until a few weeks ago, yet he thinks the OTHER senators had plenty of time to have noticed & objected to it.

Hogwash! Since when do AIDES add things to bills?! Who's running Congress these days? Why hasn't the aide been fired?

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002487.php