Sen. Leahy lashes out at Bush administration

10/15/2006

By Stephen Seitz
Rutland Herald

SOUTH ROYALTON — U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy said Saturday that, should he become the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman after congressional elections this fall, there would be far more oversight of the Bush administration than there is now.

Leahy is currently the ranking minority member.

"There will be no more rubber stamping," he said after a speech to Vermont Law School students on Saturday. "We'll have real oversight, and we'll demand that judges be more qualified."

Leahy was at the college to dedicate the environmental law center in honor of the school's late trustee, Terry Ehrich.

In his address to students Saturday, Leahy accused the Bush administration and the Republican Congress of using fear to undermine the rule of law in America, cut down individual liberty and concentrate power in the executive branch.

"The Congress itself is unwilling to serve as a check and balance on an overly aggressive executive, fostering a palpable loss of accountability and effectiveness in what government decides and how government performs," Leahy said. "We have a hand-picked Senate majority leader, and the White House sends the vice president and (political adviser) Karl Rove into the Republican caucus to tell them what to do. You can imagine the level of dissent in that room. With no checks and no balances, things spin out of control."

Without Congress blocking the administration's expansion of executive power, Leahy said that checking abuse of power is up to the courts. Leahy cited several cases reining in the administration's excesses in that regard.

"The President's response, with the acquiescence just last month of the House and Senate, was to try to silence the courts by stripping jurisdiction from them and quieting critics by assaulting their patriotism or resolve against terrorism," the senator said. "I regret that despite our efforts to fend off the worst aspects of the Military Commissions Act, it was adopted by the Senate."

One provision of the law, Leahy said, effectively eliminates the writ of habeas corpus for detainees — that is, the right to petition for their day in court and a chance to prove their innocence.

"This law could make any limits against torture and cruel and inhuman treatment obsolete, because they will be unenforceable," Leahy said. "This is wrong. It is unconstitutional. It undermines America's core ideals. It is designed to ensure that this administration will never again be embarrassed by a U.S. Supreme Court decision reviewing its unlawful abuses of power. The conservative Supreme Court has been the only check on the administration's lawlessness. And with this new law, the administration uses a complicit Congress to remove that final check."

Leahy said he was disappointed by those who opposed the law privately, but voted for it because to stay out of political danger.

"People are running scared," he said. "They're afraid of a 30-second ad. Maybe the elections this fall will give them some courage. I hope so."

Undermining freedom at home, Leahy said, in effect, helps the terrorist cause.

"If, as the president tells us, it is our freedoms that we are fighting for and that the terrorists abhor, let us not sacrifice our liberty and thereby give the terrorists a victory they could never achieve on the battlefield. Let us treasure, and steadfastly defend, the rule of law."

Leahy expanded on some of his remarks later.

"The Constitution will protect us if we protect it," Leahy said. "The American people understand things better than they are given credit for."

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