You Would Get Fired For Doing this!!!

House balks on FISA

Jim Brown
OneNewsNow
2/15/2008 1:00:00 PM

The House has left for a weeklong recess without taking action on a Senate-approved bill to modernize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

President Bush had been calling on Congress to pass a bill that would amend FISA before a temporary law allowing warrantless wiretapping of suspected terrorists expires at midnight Saturday. But House Democrats refused to take action on the permanent surveillance law, and instead went forward in approving contempt citations for White House chief of staff Josh Bolton and former Bush counsel Harriet Miers for their role in the firing of federal prosecutors.

House Republicans boycotted the vote yesterday, staging a walk out. Senator Thad McCotter (R-Michigan) accused Democrats of putting politics ahead of the interest of the American people. "It's cheap political theatrics that injure a good man's reputation; it will do nothing to further the cause of protecting America in a time of war," he states. "[It will] do nothing to further the cause of promoting American prosperity in a time of an economic downturn."

He contends it was purely a political move by the Democratic Party to influence the upcoming presidential elections and to "cast a shadow" over the outgoing Bush administration, in hopes of guaranteeing there is no incoming Republican administration. Such "theatrics" do not represent what is important to the American people, says McCotter.

Senator Kit Bond (R-Missouri) also blasted House Democrats for their inaction on FISA. "Perhaps if al-Qaida were actually on steroids then the House leadership would be more interested in dealing with it," he adds. (emphasis added)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) has said President Bush and Republicans are "fear mongering." But the White House contends that if the temporary Protect America Act expires before FISA is amended, intelligence officials will not be able to wiretap newly discovered international terrorist groups overseas.