Pendragon_6
01-11-2006, 01:26 PM
William R. Hawkins
FrontPageMagazine.com | January 11, 2006
Antiwar leftists have returned to another theme from the Vietnam era: claiming that President George W. Bush is violating the Constitution in his vigorous prosecution of the war against terrorists. At Senate hearings on the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court January 9, opening statements by leading antiwar leftists gave the need for judicial restraints on the president’s war powers a high priority.
Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, Ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee: “In a time when this administration seems intent on accumulating unchecked power, Judge Alito’s views on Executive power are especially important. This nomination is being considered against the backdrop of another recent revelation – that the president has, outside the law, been conducting secret and warrantless spying on Americans for more than four years.”
Sen Ted Kennedy, D-MA, objected to Alito’s “clear record of support for vast presidential authority.” Sen. Russ Feingold, D-WI, repeated Leahy’s dubious charge that “this administration has for years been spying on American citizens without a court order and without following the laws passed by Congress” before arguing, “We need judges who will stand up and tell the executive branch it is wrong when it ignores or distorts the laws passed by Congress.” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, told reporters, “You're going to have to go back pretty deep into history to find another nominee that will have faced so many questions on the power of a president, particularly during a war.”
In Full
Front Page Magazine (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20853)
FrontPageMagazine.com | January 11, 2006
Antiwar leftists have returned to another theme from the Vietnam era: claiming that President George W. Bush is violating the Constitution in his vigorous prosecution of the war against terrorists. At Senate hearings on the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court January 9, opening statements by leading antiwar leftists gave the need for judicial restraints on the president’s war powers a high priority.
Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, Ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee: “In a time when this administration seems intent on accumulating unchecked power, Judge Alito’s views on Executive power are especially important. This nomination is being considered against the backdrop of another recent revelation – that the president has, outside the law, been conducting secret and warrantless spying on Americans for more than four years.”
Sen Ted Kennedy, D-MA, objected to Alito’s “clear record of support for vast presidential authority.” Sen. Russ Feingold, D-WI, repeated Leahy’s dubious charge that “this administration has for years been spying on American citizens without a court order and without following the laws passed by Congress” before arguing, “We need judges who will stand up and tell the executive branch it is wrong when it ignores or distorts the laws passed by Congress.” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, told reporters, “You're going to have to go back pretty deep into history to find another nominee that will have faced so many questions on the power of a president, particularly during a war.”
In Full
Front Page Magazine (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20853)