Pelosi stands up to Bush over rule of law

Excerpt from full article here:

To House Democrats, what's at stake is whether Mr. Bush – and future presidents – are accountable to Congress. "Whether the president is a Democrat or a Republican, they can't act outside the law," said Speaker Pelosi at a press briefing.

The issue is the sharpest confrontation over presidential powers since Democrats took control of Congress last year. "Oversight is an institutional obligation to ensure against abuse of power," Pelosi said in a briefing on Thursday.

At the heart of the dispute is proposed retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that took part in the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance after the 9/11 attacks.

Without liability protection – and facing lawsuits asking for billions of dollars in damages – such companies are going to be "less likely to cooperate" with the government on national-security matters in the future, Bush said Thursday. House Democrats say these companies, along with the president, must be held to the rule of law.

I'm glad the Speaker is taking this issue as seriously as it needs to be and I hope she and other supporters will be able to stand up to what is sure to be increasing pressure from President Bush.

Read the full article linked above to see the Republican response. The Administration has all the authority it needs under the current law.

And as I argued earlier, companies should be insisting that all three branches of government are fully involved when they are compelled to eavesdrop or wiretap: Congress should authorize law (as it did with FISA and other laws), the President should execute it, and the Judiciary should review it. That's the only way we can be certain we are acting in the public interest.