Republican rebellion
the headline we've all been waiting to see...
yeah, well, we might like the headline but saying that they're "wrestling with how hard to press the white house" kind of skirts the fact that the wh has been extraordinarily aggressive (and for THAT crowd, that's saying something) about tasering the r's into line over the spying issue (see previous post plus here and here), so much so, in fact, that the senate r's have succeeded in virtually emasculating any serious spying oversight... plus, dr. evil has been given a series of day passes from his padded cell in an undisclosed location to wave his shotgun in the face of anyone making dissent-like noises...
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A Rebellion in the G.O.P. on Security, a Signature Issue
After more than five years of allowing President Bush relatively free rein to set their course, Republicans in Congress are suddenly, if selectively, in rebellion, a mutiny all the more surprising since it centers on the party's signature issue of national security.
In a rebuke to the White House, House Republicans are moving aggressively to put the brakes on the takeover by a Dubai company of some port terminal operations in several large American cities, an effort that moved forward on Wednesday with broad bipartisan support.
At the same time, Republicans in the Senate are wrestling with how hard to press the White House for more authority over Mr. Bush's eavesdropping program, seeking a middle ground between Democratic calls for an investigation of the program and White House demands to keep hands off.
yeah, well, we might like the headline but saying that they're "wrestling with how hard to press the white house" kind of skirts the fact that the wh has been extraordinarily aggressive (and for THAT crowd, that's saying something) about tasering the r's into line over the spying issue (see previous post plus here and here), so much so, in fact, that the senate r's have succeeded in virtually emasculating any serious spying oversight... plus, dr. evil has been given a series of day passes from his padded cell in an undisclosed location to wave his shotgun in the face of anyone making dissent-like noises...
Faced with the frightening prospect of public hearings and active Congressional oversight into President Bush's contested domestic spying program, the White House sent out its big dog -- Vice President Cheney -- to bring straying moderate Republicans to heel.Submit To Propeller
[...]
Cheney took point in the White House effort to quash a full-blown investigation into the program. And the guy still gets the job done.
Walter Pincus writes in The Washington Post:The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted along party lines yesterday to reject a Democratic proposal to investigate the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program and instead approved establishing, with White House approval, a seven-member panel to oversee the effort.
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posted by profmarcus at
3/09/2006
