Will the real James Sensenbrenner please stand up?
In a rather shocking voice vote this morning, the House Judiciary Committee (you know, the one with all the Republicans) voted "yes" on a Democratic resolution demanding the NSA turn over all "surveillance" requests to telecom companies. Sensenbrenner, in a rare extraction of his head from his own ass, supported the resolution.
In other words, the HJC has finally grown a collective testicle that members can now share between them.
From
Raw:
The House Judiciary Committee unexpectedly passed a Democratic resolution Wednesday morning calling on the Justice Department to turn over all requests made by the National Security Agency and other federal agencies to telephone service providers to obtain information without a warrant.
The measure was passed by a voice vote Wednesday morning with support of Republican Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI). It was introduced by Florida Democrat Robert Wexler.
Sensenbrenner told the Committee he would bring the measure to the full House floor for a vote if the Justice Department did not comply with his earlier requests for information about the program.
The resolution leaves little room for interpretation:
Resolved, That the President is requested and the Attorney General is directed to submit to the House of Representatives, not later than 14 days after the date of the adoption of this resolution, all documents in the possession of the President and the Attorney General, including all legal opinions, relating to requests made without a warrant by the National Security Agency or other Federal departments and agencies to telephone service providers, including wireless telephone service providers, for access to telephone communications records of persons in the United States (other than as authorized under title I of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.) or chapter 119 or 121 of title 18, United States Code), subject to necessary redactions or requirements for handling classified documents.
So, what'll the response be?
State secrets?
Executive privilege?
Or will the last 10 words of the resolution ("subject to necessary redactions or requirements for handling classified documents") simply produce a blank sheet of paper from Gonzales?
However BushCo chooses to respond, the passing of the resolution itself is encouraging. And it makes me wonder the HJC knows that the rest of us don't.
Interested in your comments. What now?