On Capitol Hill, Gonzales Digs a Deeper Hole: Senator Specter: "There is a jail in the Capitol..."

[DeepModem Mom]

TIME: Gonzales Digs a Deeper Hole
Tuesday, Jul. 24, 2007
By JAY NEWTON-SMALL/WASHINGTON

Just when it seemed that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' reputation on Capitol Hill couldn't possibly get much worse, he showed up Tuesday for yet another hearing. And as with so many of his recent appearances before Congress, his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee raised a lot more troubling questions than it answered — not just about his own conduct of and honesty about the U.S. Attorney firings, but also about the Administration's domestic intelligence gathering programs.

That new wrinkle stemmed from Gonzales' testy exchange with Senator Arlen Specter, the panel's top Republican. Specter opened up with former Deputy Attorney General James Comey's testimony to the panel in May over Gonzales' actions while serving as White House Counsel. Comey had alleged that Gonzales tried to convince an ailing Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was in the hospital recovering from gallbladder surgery, to sign off on Bush's warrantless wiretapping program. "There are no rules saying he couldn't take back authority," Gonzales said, trying to explain that they had hoped Ashcroft might be able to sign off on an intelligence program due to expire the next day, a program that Comey as acting AG had refused to renew.

But what Specter really wanted to know was how that meeting squared with Gonzales' previous testimony that there had been no serious internal disagreements over the program. Gonzales seemed to believe he had a simple explanation. "The disagreement that occurred was about other intelligence activities, and the reason for the visit to the hospital was about other intelligence activities," the Attorney General said. "It was not about the terrorist surveillance program that the president announced to the American people."

Both Specter and later Senator Chuck Schumer latched onto Gonzales' puzzling comment. Schumer in particular brought up several examples where in sworn testimony Gonzales has named the Terrorist Surveillance Program as the one at issue during the hospital visit to Ashcroft's room. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy then ordered a complete review of Gonzales' statements to the committee. "This is such a significant and major point," Leahy said. "There's a discrepancy here in sworn testimony and we're going to find out who's telling the truth."

Specter later circled back to Gonzales on the matter, warning him: "My suggestion to you is you review your testimony to find out if your credibility has been breached to the point of being actionable," Specter said. The maximum penalty for being caught lying to Congress is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 per count. Specter wryly noted to reporters during a break that there is a jail in the Capitol complex....

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1646714,00.html?xid=site-cnn-partner

[Kagemusha]

1. Oh, there IS a jail in the Capitol complex in this day and age!

Thank you, Sen. Specter, for confirming this! That's the one that gets used for inherent contempt convictions, right?

And I thought my day wasn't going to have any bright spots.

[pinto]

2. It was a great series of exchanges.

[rodeodance]

3. amazing---Specter might get him on perjury charge.

[eleny]

4. Recommended!

I don't trust Specter. But I like that he mentioned that jail.

[Patsy Stone]

5. Nice, Jay!

Senator Jay Rockefeller, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, who was involved in the briefings at the time of the hospital visit, said the so-called Gang of Eight — the eight top bipartisan members of Congress on intelligence issues — were not briefed about any sunset the program was facing, as Gonzales claimed. He also emphatically refuted Gonzales' statements that there was more than one program under discussion at the time and that the Gang of Eight had agreed the program was so important that if it had been allowed to lapse they were considering emergency legislation.

"Once again he's making up something to protect himself and creating situations that never happened," Rockefeller said, adding that "based on what I know about it, I'd have to say" Gonzales has committed perjury.

[marylanddem]

6. Sounds like perjury to me...that's spelled P-E-R-J-U-R-Y

The nation's top law enforcement official is a perjurer. Great.

[frogcycle]

8. and of course we know he is much, much more than a perjuror n/t

[bleever]

10. Jay O Kay.

Sorry, that's the best I got right now, but:

:thumbsup:

[frogcycle]

7. un-be-damn-lievable!

[mmonk]

9. Specter has been talking things up lately.

We need to use those words of his and translate them into action.

[grasswire]

11. isn't it odd that he could remember his meeting with Monica...

...so clearly? He perked up when asked about that, and gave prompt answers.

[zehnkatzen]

12. Ironic that it's a Republican saying this...

...but then I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop with these guys.

Of course, The Hon. Rep. Spector just might be hedging his bets with his increasingly-Democratic colleagues; Republicans are nothing if not crass opportunists.

Well, it was enough off the Republican rez that Fox Noise labelled him a Democrat today. True story!

[monmouth]

13. I would love to hear from Mrs. Ashcroft, was she present in the room,

or did they make her leave because of the "secret" discussions. Bet she could give an earful...