« Home

The Spin Doctor is in...

Well it didn’t take long for Sen. Pat Roberts to spin his stunt on Thursday to try to make himself look less like the BushCo. lackey that he really is.

From the NY Times:
WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 — The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Friday that he wanted the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program brought under the authority of a special intelligence court.

The chairman, Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, said he had some concerns that the court could not issue warrants quickly enough to keep up with the needs of the eavesdropping program. But he said he would like to see those details worked out.

Mr. Roberts also said he did not believe that exempting the program from the purview of the court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act "would be met with much support" on Capitol Hill."I think it should come before the FISA court, but I don't know how it works," Mr. Roberts said.

Roberts is saying he chose to delay a vote on an investigation because he wanted to give the White House time to bring the program within the purview of the FISA court. He also doesn't think exempting the program is such a good idea. Too bad that idea seems to be more to the administration's liking.
White House officials favor a proposal offered by another Republican senator, Mike DeWine of Ohio, whose bill would exempt the eavesdropping from the intelligence court.

And what about those pesky accusations of Roberts caving in to pressure from the White House? Why it was the exact opposite of course.
"The irony of this is that it is portrayed now as administration pressure brought to bear on us, meaning the Republicans on the committee and basically me," Mr. Roberts said Friday. "It's just the reverse. It's the Republicans on the committee, my staff and myself, who have been really — I don't want to say pressuring, but trying to come up with a reasonable compromise that will settle this issue. It was our activity that brought them along to this point, plus the possibility of an investigation."

See it was Bush who caved, not the mighty Pat Roberts. Face it Pat, no amount of spin will help make it seem like you are the bulwark to the Bush administration that you think you are.

BTW, how's that Phase II report coming along?