Sunday Morning Fourth Amendment Pop Quiz--Know Your Missouri Senator

Which present or former Missouri senator wrote:

The protections of the Fourth Amendment are clear. The right to protection from unlawful searches is an indivisible American value. Two hundred years of court decisions have stood in defense of this fundamental right. The state's interest in effective crime-fighting should never vitiate the citizens' Bill of Rights.

A. Senator Claire McCaskill; or

B. Former Senator John Ashcroft?

The correct answer is John Ashcroft. The above quote is taken from KEEP BIG BROTHER'S HANDS OFF THE INTERNET written by John Ashcroft in October 1997. Years later, in a scene reminiscent of Jim Bowie fighting Mexican soldiers from his cot in the Alamo infimary, a very ill Aschroft sat up in his hospital bed to tell Alberto Gonzales "NO" to a policy violating the 4th Amendment.

Yesterday, rushing to get out of Washington, McCaskill quipped to a CQ Today reporter about her vote for the Bush FISA bill.

“I’m not thrilled. There are some changes we need to make to make sure that American citizens are protected. But it’s a lot better than a lot of things that have been forced down this Congress’ throat right before recesses that trampled on American’s liberties.”

McCaskill knowns what is really important. American liberties be damned if they get in the way of her vacation. Party, party, party, party.

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Ashcroft Disputes Gonzales' Wiretap Testimony

The AP is reporting that John Ashcroft has confirmed there was a sharp division within the Administration over the constitutionality of some of the controversial provisions of the Bush Administration's warrentless wiretap program.

"It is very apparent to us that there was robust and enormous debate within the administration about the legal basis for the president's surveillance program," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, told reporters after a closed-door meeting with Ashcroft.

Ashcroft's confirmation is in stark contrast to the previous testimony of Alberto Gonzales that there had been no significant disagreement within the administration over the program. Clearly this story is developing.

Of course, it might be possible to harmonize their positions by assuming that Gonzales was talking about the administration after Ashcroft, James Comey and all the other dissidents had been purged.

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Gonzales Attempted to Bully John Ashcroft Into Authorizing An Illegal Domestic Spying Program As Ashcroft Lay Seriously Ill In Intensive Care

Dan Eggan and Paul Kane of the Washington Post have filed a chilling report detailing a confrontation between Alberto Gonzales and John Ashcroft over the administration's domestic surveillance program, a program the justice department had determined was illegal. During yesterday's testimony before the senate judiciary committee James B. Comey told the panel that on the night of March 10, 2004, Ashcroft lay seriously ill in intensive care. Comey, who was then acting Attorney General, learned that Gonzales and Andy Card were on their way to the hospital to have Ashcroft overrule Comey's decision not to reauthorize the program.

(Comey) alerted FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and raced, sirens blaring, to join Ashcroft in his hospital room, arriving minutes before Gonzales and Card. Ashcroft, summoning the strength to lift his head and speak, refused to sign the papers they had brought. Gonzales and Card, who had never acknowledged Comey's presence in the room, turned and left.

The sickbed visit was the start of a dramatic showdown between the White House and the Justice Department in early 2004 that, according to Comey, was resolved only when Bush overruled Gonzales and Card. But that was not before Ashcroft, Comey, Mueller and their aides prepared a mass resignation, Comey said.

Read the entire story. It is like something out of a political potboiler. Apparently the President signed off on the program without ever receiving approval from the Department of Justice. According to David Johnston of The New York Times after approving the illegal program, the President directed the justice department to take necessary, but undisclosed, steps to bring it into compliance with the law.

"The story is a shocking one. It makes you almost gulp," Schumer said. "The incident shows that Gonzales holds the rule of law `in minimum low regard,'" the senator said, adding, "It's hard to understand after hearing this story how Attorney General Gonzales could remain as attorney general."

Laurie Asseo of Bloomberg reports

Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the committee's ranking Republican, said the confrontation ``has some characteristics of the Saturday Night Massacre'' during the Nixon administration when top Justice Department officials resigned rather than fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox.

Specter also said yesterday's announcement that Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty will resign provided ``evidence that the department really cannot function with the continued leadership or lack of leadership of Attorney General Gonzales.'' . . .

Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said Gonzales is doing an ``abysmal job'' and the Justice Department is ``being run like a political arm of the White House.''

Ashcroft declined to comment on Comey's testimony.

Feel safer because people in the Department of Justice stood tall for our rights? Well, the good guys in this story have all left government. The bad guys are still there. Now do you feel safer?

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