Today's ON THIS DATE IN BUSH HISTORY... Lies to Congress

[blueButGlad]

With the start of a new year, take some time to look back. Today's 'On this date in Bush history...'

"A Lie stands on 1 leg, Truth on 2" Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1735

During Alberto Gonzales’ confirmation hearing two years ago today for the position of Attorney General Senator Russell Feingold (Wisconsin) asked "Judge Gonzales does ... have the authority to authorize violations of the criminal law under duly enacted statutes simply because he’s commander in chief? Does he - does he have that power?" Mr. Gonzales states, "it's not the policy or the agenda of this president to authorize actions that would be in contravention of our criminal statutes".

One of those statutes is the FISA Act. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) makes it a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, to conduct electronic surveillance, except as "authorized by and conducted pursuant to a search warrant or court order". It would later become known that, at the time of this testimony by the would-be Attorney General, the president was in violation of the terms of FISA. If Gonzales had known about it, and as an administration lawyer close to the president he likely did, Mr. Gonzales did not mention the FISA violations during the hearings. In fact, his statement above leaves the impression that nothing of the sort was going on. Gonzales went on to win the Senate’s approval and became the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. As for President Bush, despite what Mr. Gonzales testified, the president continued "to authorize actions that would be in contravention of our criminal statutes". Specifically, President Bush repeatedly authorized the wiretapping of the international phone calls and emails of American citizens, without obtaining the judicial authorization mandated by the FISA Act.

Later in this same hearing, Feingold asked Gonzales to "commit to notify Congress if the president makes this type of decision and not wait two years until a memo is leaked about it". Gonzales replies that he would "advise the Congress as soon as I reasonably can, yes, sir". In the end, the news of the president’s FISA violations was obtained from a leak to the New York Times, not from Attorney General Gonzales.

"It is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else." Theodore Roosevelt

'ON THIS DATE IN BUSH HISTORY': FINAL DAYS!

Excerpt from the Jan 6th entry of the Bush-folly-a-day 2007 calendar http://www.poorGeorgesAlmanac.com