That is precisely what the administration, the GOP and its mouthpieces would say if a Democrat was talking about this:
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said Thursday he is considering legislation to cut off funding for the Bush administration’s secret domestic wiretapping program until he gets satisfactory answers about it from the White House.
“Institutionally, the presidency is walking all over Congress at the moment,” Specter, R-Pa., told the panel. “If we are to maintain our institutional prerogative, that may be the only way we can do it.”
Specter said he had informed President Bush about his intention and that he has attracted several potential co-sponsors. He said he’s become increasingly frustrated in trying to elicit information about the program from senior White House officials at several public hearings.
The amendment amounted to a warning to the White House from a powerful but frustrated Senate chairman.
Now I agree with Specter’s assessment of the situation but I can not agree with him making it. The problem is that Specter is playing politics on this. When he had Gonzalez before him to testify he should have sworn him in. Instead he turned a blind eye to our Constitution and put faith in his “party”, the party of corruption. In turn there are now numerous questions from Gonzalez’s session that are unclear and possibly answered falsely. If Specter means what he is saying then he will reopen those hearings, call all the top officials from the DOJ and NSA in and swear every single one in. Wake up – this is only the very basis of our nation we are talking about.