TOP STORY

Power Of The Purse

By Thomas Jeffrey

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Article Posted: Thursday April 27, 2006

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Senator Arlen “Single Bullet Theory” Specter is mad as hell and his isn’t going to take it anymore.

After repeatedly watching his GOP colleagues on Capitol Hill abdicate their oversight powers to the Bush Administration, effectively giving the White House carte blanche to continually circumvent civil liberties under the guise of “The War On Terror,” the Pennsylvania Republican is now prepared to use the only weapon left to the Congress to hit back at an increasingly arrogant and dismissive Smirking POTUS: the power of the purse.

Complaining that is has been nearly impossible to get any kind of information out of Administration officials regarding the President’s NSA-led domestic spy program, Specter is now threatening to pull funding for the controversial program unless the White House “plays ball” and does what is said it would do: keep Congress in the loop.

“Institutionally, the presidency is walking all over Congress at the moment,” Specter, R-Pennsylvania, told the [Senate Judiciary Committee]. “If we are to maintain our institutional prerogative, that may be the only way we can do it.”

Senator Specter has said that he has informed the president about his intentions, and is currently considering an amendment to a Iraq war/hurricane relief spending bill that would effectively kill the program. And while some of his colleagues chaff at the veteran Senator’s bravado, Specter acknowledged his Democratic colleague’s fears about the effectiveness of any potential oversight when he stated that “it is true that we have no assurance that the president would follow any statute that we enact.”

But this Leftwing Nutjob doesn’t believe for one minute that no one in the Congress didn’t see this coming. And by differing real action on the issue some two months ago, when the Senate Intelligence Committee failed to stand up and order hearings into the president’s domestic spy program, it’s become shit-or-get-off-the-pot time for the boys and girls on Capitol Hill. Because if they don’t act now, I believe the American people will replace them in November with someone who will.

Source:
Sen. Specter threatens to cut off funding for secret wiretaps – CNN.com

- posted by: Thomas Jeffrey and Apr 27, 07:14 PM in US-Senate Bush-Administration

 

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