can you see the shades of Watergate on this?

Question

White House wants more time on subpoenas By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Aug 18, 12:18 AM ET
CRAWFORD, Texas - The White House on Friday asked a Senate panel for more time to produce subpoenaed information about the legal justification for President Bush's secretive eavesdropping program.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy had set Monday as the deadline for administration officials already subpoenaed to provide documents and testimony about the National Security Agency's eavesdropping program.
In a letter to Leahy, White House counsel Fred Fielding argued that the subpoenas called for the production of "extraordinarily sensitive national security information," and he said much of the information — if not all — could be subject to a claim of executive privilege.
Fielding asked Leahy to suspend the deadline until after Labor Day.

history repeats itself again, yet with another republican president.

cons, this is what you project. deal with it!

Answer 1

Nixon and the Watergate burglars were saints compared to this administration. Nixon, love him or hate him, knew right from wrong and when his minions were exposed, he did the honorable thing and stood by them. All Bush can do is play with his tinker toys in the west wing while Cheyney runs the country into the toilet.

Answer 2

I believe there are times when Executive Privilege needs to be invoked, unfortunately the only times I notice it being invoked is when the law appears to be being broken. If the Bush WH is so concerned about national security matters being leaked, then I see no reason why a closed session of the Judiciary Committee could not be arranged to insure the security of the information that needs to be presented. That way national security is not at stake, but Congress will have its questions answered on these issues.

Answer 3

Yes, the main difference is the GOP has no shame, maybe because they enable W during into most of his time and was his lap dog, and did his bidding, and the Dem's are more interest in their own political futures, and do have not courage to stand up to W. Then lets now forget the media that let W lead them around by the nose, and laughed at his silly jokes in the beginning of new conferences so that he can put them in their place. Then there is the American people that are more interested in the death of Anna Nicole Smith, than holding W feet to the fire for his illegal behavior

Answer 4

It's laughable that the White House needs "more time" to explain it's legal justification for a program that was ongoing for over 5+ years.

And there is no issue of national security for the White House to identify what existing laws it claims to be following -- all laws are public. So, there cannot be any national security issue to just produce a copy of the law. Either the law exists allowing the program, or it doesn't.

As far as privilege -- that may apply. But that is entirely controlled by the White House. On its face, the White House violated the law (18 USC 2511, et al.) -- if it wants to raise a legal defense based on privileged materials, then it needs to release those privileged materials.

That's the way every legal privileged has always worked. If a matter is covered by privilege, it can only be released by the party who holds that privilege. If the party refuses to release that information, that's their choice.

But the law has NEVER recognized as valid the claim that "I'm entitled to break the law, but I don't have to tell you why". The fact that the White House is even attempting to make that argument shows how irrational they've become.

Answer 5

It will all be Executive Privilege, no story really. Everyone by now knows bush jr is corrupt, we just have to wait the 17 months and hope he doesn't do anything else stupid like invade Iran.

Answer 6

The media LOVED watergate. As evidenced by how often scandals, however trivial, are described with the suffix '-gate' appended to them. Asside from the media's glee at reporting political scandals, I've seen little real similarity between Watergate and later scandals.

For one thing, Nixon had the integrity to step down.

Answer 7

Do you REALLY think these people are having high profile public banter about what's REALLY going on with intelligence gathering and national security?
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WOW Cora, you've really got Bush nailed on that USC stuff. How does it feel to be obsolete?
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Answer 8

I am sure that at the first hint of impropriety in the Nixon White House Nixon admitted to everything immediately and without hesitation!


Why do people who still support this criminal nonsense by the Bush White House think Bush is just gonna stand up in front of the nation and say

"Yeah, you know, we had to do this even though it is illegal...!"

Of course this isn't going to happen!

That's why it is up to Nancy Pelosi to do her JOB and call this criminal behavior to the floor!!

Answer 9

Of course...they love to use words like "executive privilege" and "sensitive secure documents" when they don't want the truth to come out....

Answer 10

Actually no, I do not see the shades of Watergate on this. I do see a President who wants to defend the Nation and a bunch of libs trying to sabotage his efforts. I do see shades of Jane Fonda and Tokyo Rose .