Senator Kyl Blocks Repeal of Correction To Patriot Act

For those who have been paying attention the President wants the power to appoint any of his friends to the position of US attorney without dealing with the pesky senate confirmation process. During the passage of the USA Patriot Act a Republican staffer snuck in a change to the law allowing the AG to permanently appoint US attorneys without Senate approval. Recently the AG used the new law to fire 9 US attorneys and to appoint their replacements without Senate confirmation. Some of the firings involved US attorneys who were involved in fighting Republican corruption. One of the others resulted in the appointment of one of Karl Rove's henchmen as US attorney in Arkansas. Any guesses why Rove would want one of his boys down in Little Rock during the run up to the 2008 election?

When Specter found out that giving away the Senate's confirmation power had been attributed to him, he was shocked. Apparently nobody told him about the change. It turned out that a staffer who fancied himself Senator inserted the language at the request of the Administration without telling his boss. Senator Feinstein recently sponsored a bill restoring the law to status quo ante. Well, it seems the administration has had its Senate waterboy, Senator Kyl, block the legislation. That resulted in an uproar on the Senate Floor this afternoon. Enjoy Senator Schumer's comments.