Comments (22)

Califlander wrote on September 25, 2007 10:41 AM:

Honestly, every time McConnell goes into one of his "we have to do this now or AMERICANS ARE GONNA DIE!!!!" routines, I wonder how such a hysteric made it through a career in the Navy.

osage wrote on September 25, 2007 10:55 AM:

McConnell is following "political" orders from his dear leader. He is not offering politically "unbiased" comments and opinions. He is focusing on the "politics" rather than the professional requirements of his job. The man is ANOTHER Bush HACK whose mission is to pervert our government agencies into Republican political fiefdoms in their shameless pursuit of one-party control of American government and American citizens. When are the Democrats going to learn to STOP APPROVING BUSH APPOINTEES! WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO TRULY "FIGHT" TO THE END FOR "PRINCIPLE" RATHER THAN "ACQUIESCE" TO POLITICAL EXPEDIENCE?!

Mark C wrote on September 25, 2007 10:59 AM:

Yeah, whatever Pat.

Republicans will continue to question the courage and patriotism of Democrats at every opportunity for one very, very simple reason.

It works.

EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

ReThugs just say boo and the Democrats cave and further trash the rule of law and the constitution.

So give your angry speeches Pat. Whatever.

And then go have another scotch with your good buddy Arlen....

TheThirdMan wrote on September 25, 2007 11:02 AM:

Coincidentally, there is an excerpt from a speech from James Comey in todays WaPo. Here is a quote and the link. McConnell might want to read the full text!

"It is the job of a good lawyer to say "yes." It is as much the job of a good lawyer to say "no." "No" is much, much harder. "No" must be spoken into a storm of crisis, with loud voices all around, with lives hanging in the balance. "No" is often the undoing of a career. And often, "no" must be spoken in competition with the voices of other lawyers who do not have the courage to echo it."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/24/AR2007092401539.html?nav=rss_print/asection

jeffgee wrote on September 25, 2007 11:03 AM:

Bush and his puppets:
Do it my way or The Terrorists will kill YOUR CHILDREN!!
Democrats tremble in fear of the right wing noise machine. It must be from years of getting kneecapped by Karl Rove. They need to get over it now or we'll be stuck with the promised efficient fascism of Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney for 4 excruciating years.

markg8 wrote on September 25, 2007 11:06 AM:

"I wonder how such a hysteric made it through a career in the Navy."

By sucking up to the likes of Dick Cheney.
This has been another...you know the drill.

Legalize wrote on September 25, 2007 11:13 AM:

Yawn. They'll yell and scream this week and grant Bush all the powers he likes next week.

Fuck them.

chisholm wrote on September 25, 2007 11:17 AM:

I feel sorry for Leahy. He's frustrated and has no idea why he's so perfectly impotent.

Mrs. Mulwray wrote on September 25, 2007 11:31 AM:

Leahy has time to convene hearings? I thought he was too busy voting to censure the Move On ad.

JEP wrote on September 25, 2007 11:37 AM:

more Americans might die if we DO NOT debate, this is such a travesty, I'm beginning to think some fake Democrats are running the party, they are really Republicans in disguise.

kerryinalaska wrote on September 25, 2007 11:47 AM:

Wow, so Leahy has spoken forcefully....guess that will scare them into proper action. Guess that means he will have to take time from monitoring all those subversive advertisements so harmfull to amurika. Screw these fools, they all yell about how bad it is and then they vote to support the gop. Every time.
Leahy = yelp like a dog and roll over for the owners. Noise doesn't equal action. The dems have become loosers, quaking in fear of the paper tigers snarling at them. Are there no patriots?

Hadenuf? wrote on September 25, 2007 12:17 PM:

Poor Democrats. It is very hard to stand up to these jack boot asses when you do not possess a backbone of your own.

Complacency is complicity.

Pathetic.

WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!

Long Memory wrote on September 25, 2007 12:30 PM:

One of two things will happen. A Democrat will win the presidency, but (a) before Inauguration Day W will declare that the War on Terror is over and there's no need for continuing things like the Patriot Act that were necessary in "wartime." Or, (b) the Republicans will enter the post-W error (I mean, era) scared to death.

Because it WILL come out that they were spying on Americans for political purposes. And then there WILL be hell to pay.

jrcjr wrote on September 25, 2007 12:40 PM:

McConnell disgraces every soldier who died defending democracy. apparently democracy is too frightening for him.

Legalize wrote on September 25, 2007 12:41 PM:

I am afraid, Long Memory, that unlike your screen name, Amuricans and the craven scum bags they elect to public office, have amazingly SHORT memories. No one in the Bush Administration will ever be held responsible for their treasonous abuses, and no conseqences will ever befall the members of either party who enabled them? Why? Because both parties are really looking forward to trying out those abuses for themselves.

The Dems and GOPers are merely playing the good cop-bad cop routine. The GOP smacks us around the interview room for a little bit and the Dems sooth us with coffee and cigarettes while the GOPers are out planning new ways to beat us up.

Thethinredline wrote on September 25, 2007 1:10 PM:

Quite frankly i don't know what's keeping Pat Leahy alive, i mean, if i was him i'd either have had a stroke by now, or would have been ready for the asylum

nixenron wrote on September 25, 2007 2:07 PM:

Enron rules the world b-dogs!

Karl Rove, Leura Canary, Alice Martin & all the other keepers of the missing Choctaw $13 million, have Abramoff locked away, so he can't blow the lid off the Alabama railroading of Don Siegelmann. Geee whiz batman...a dupe might conclude all this terror stuff from the Bush gang is really about covert domestic espionage...I mean that is if you wonder why the Mexican border remains wide open, inviting a few "badguys" to visit the homeland.

sponson wrote on September 25, 2007 2:11 PM:

Long memory is right. It will come out one way or another after Bush leaves office that Bushco was spying on Americans for political purposes. And then as now, it will be up to US to make the Democrats actually do something about it. Here's another thing that will happen when Bush leaves office: the media will "discover" the horrible PTSD and physical wounds of our Iraq veterans, who have already been suffering in silence and neglect for years. But only when Bush is gone, because our media (and many if not most of "our" Democrats) are cowards.

agum wrote on September 25, 2007 2:15 PM:

I keep wondering how a 5 foot tall, skinny dweeb who looks like Elmer Fudd made it through a career in the Navy.

I would have expected his career to have ended thirty years ago when he first got stuffed in a crew locker.

More seriously, McConnell is exactly the kind of pathetic toady and authoritarian movement follower who succeeds in the Bush administration.

Or in the words of Josh Bolten, "Thank you, sir, for the pleasure of serving you today!"

Glenn wrote on September 25, 2007 2:19 PM:

Of course, Leahy was right to call McConnell on this. But I wish sometimes that we had leaders (and a press, and I guess a public, too) who could talk about this issue forthrightly, because of course McConnell is also correct: Placing limitations on the exercise of state power through oversight and review (congressional, judicial, etc.) almost certainly does cost lives in some sense. If we didn't have the 4th Amendment, for example, we'd almost surely catch more criminals, and that would almost surely mean less crime and fewer deaths from crime. So in a very real sense, the 4th Amendment costs American lives. But that's the price we are willing to pay (most of us) to live in a free society where the police can't just walk into your house and search around to see if you might be a criminal. Same thing with the NSA.

Official A wrote on September 25, 2007 2:20 PM:

"...both parties are really looking forward to trying out those abuses for themselves."

That about sums it up. You're not likely to hear any of the Democratic front-runners complaining that the presidency has become too powerful.

IT'S THE CONSTITUTION, STUPID.

Emms wrote on September 26, 2007 12:29 PM:

"Some Americans are going to die."

Yeah, this is a bogus excuse they should not still get away with. Some Americans (thousands; ~45,000) are going to die this year because the administration has done little for automotive safety during its tenure. Some Americans (thousands again) are going to die because the administration gutted OSHA and mining enforcement. Some Americans (tens of thousands) are going to die because the administration has done nothing to solve the immoral and embarrassing state of low health care coverage. I could go on and on. The lives have absolutely zero, zip, nada, bupkis to do with it. It's an utter lie just to hide a ruthless power grab. It's way past time to turn the lie back on them and make them ACTUALLY work to save (and improve) American lives, for once. Every time they haul that line out it should be thrown back in their sneering, holier-than-though faces.