Senator Arlen Specter on Meet the Press

This morning, Republican Senator Arlen Specter made it very clear he believes the Bush Administration has a lot of explaining to do on the domestic spying they've been doing. He also made it clear that he intends to hold fair hearings and I believe he will.

Read the transcript starting about 2/3rds the way down here.

If you have a high speed connection, you can watch the show here. Specter doesn't come on until later in the show so you'll need to wait through the short commercial at the beginning and then scroll to 22:09 of the Meet the Press video.

A few choice moments from the transcript:

SEN. SPECTER: Why the administration did not go to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and tell them about the program. They have a great record for not leaking. They're experts in the field. The program could've been presented there, still could be. And I think that's the biggest question the administration has to answer.

MR. RUSSERT: The administration says that they didn't need to, that they already had authority from Congress when, back in October 2002, Congress voted an authorization to go to war against Iraq, and this is part of that war.

SEN. SPECTER: I believe that contention is very strained and unrealistic. The authorization for the use of force doesn't say anything about electronic surveillance, issue was never raised with the Congress.

THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION RUSSERT ASKED AND SPECTER ANSWERED WAS THIS ONE:

MR. RUSSERT: You mentioned the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, passed by Congress, signed by President Jimmy Carter. That law says that you can go forward with eavesdropping without a court warrant as long as you go back to the foreign--the FISA court, as it's called, within 72 hours. What have you heard from the administration as to why they did not choose to take that path?

SEN. SPECTER: Well, that was one of the questions I posed in a detailed letter I sent some time ago to the attorney general, and he wasn't entirely responsive, but the thrust of what he had to say was that it was too massive to undertake and too complicated and it would have resulted in delays. His answer wasn't very clear, and that's why we're having the--the hearing to go into it.

I think this issue, Tim, of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is really big, big, big, because the President--the administration could take this entire program and lay it on the line to that court and go through what is involved in some detail, but they don't want to deal with Congress because of leaks. That court has really an outstanding record of not leaking, out of being experts, and they would be preeminently well-qualified to evaluate this program and either say it's OK or it's not OK. And if they said it was OK, it would give the American people great reassurance; and if they said it wasn't OK, knowing all the facts, then that ought to be changed.

IN OTHER WORDS... The law allows for the President to act quickly and then go back afterwards for permission!!! They aren't doing so which is a clear violation of the law. Their justification for doing so is BS in Specter's opinion and he has no partisan axe to grind!