http://www.tnr.com/111901/crowley111901.html
ON THE HILL
Personal Time
by Michael Crowley
Post date 11.08.01 | Issue date 11.19.01
[...]
Leahy's prickliness is starting to have national policy
ramifications. Consider what happened during negotiations last month
over emergency anti-terrorism legislation. At the outset, the Bush
administration was confident it would get enhanced law enforcement
authority from the GOP-controlled House. It was Leahy and the
Democratic-controlled Senate they worried about. After all, last year
Leahy, a former prosecutor deeply wary of broad law enforcement
powers, almost single-handedly sank a similar anti-terrorism bill
crafted by Feinstein and Arizona Republican Jon Kyl (See "Sin of
Commission," by Franklin Foer, October 8). And the September 11
attacks appeared to do little to change his mind. When Attorney
General John Ashcroft asked Congress for swift passage of expanded
wiretapping, detention, and evidence-sharing powers, Leahy insisted on
opening up detailed negotiations with Justice Department and White
House officials before advancing a bill out of his committee.
Few people objected to such consultation. But Leahy proceeded to
alienate his colleagues by limiting the talks to a narrow circle
consisting of himself, Ted Kennedy, ranking Judiciary Republican Orrin
Hatch, and Justice Department officials. When other Judiciary
Committee senators-- primarily Feinstein and New York's Chuck
Schumer-- suggested changes, Leahy and his famously thorny chief
counsel, Bruce Cohen, closed ranks further, implying that the
negotiations were his responsibility alone. "I think it was a mistake
to go ahead with that view of the world," says one civil liberties
lobbyist.
And, in a sad irony, Leahy's insularity appears to have made the bill
less protective of civil liberties. Had Leahy been more open to
working with his fellow senators, some observers say, he might have
had enough support in his committee to alter the bill more to his
liking. Instead he went it largely solo. At an October 2 press
conference, Ashcroft, joined by Hatch and Senate Minority Leader Trent
Lott, implied that Leahy was stalling the legislation and leaving the
public "susceptible" to more attacks. It was a startlingly partisan
move--and one that appalled Leahy, who accuses the White House of
shifting its own time-consuming delays--but it worked. Without allies
on his committee, and quite likely under pressure from Senate Majority
Leader Tom Daschle, who was concerned about the Democrats looking weak
on terrorism, Leahy was forced to cave, according to observers.
The outcome: The Senate, as The Wall Street Journal put it, "produced
a bill whose vast expansion of law-enforcement powers delivers almost
everything the Bush administration sought." In the House, by contrast,
a coalition of ACLU liberals and anti-government conservatives
succeeded in adding a sunset provision phasing out expanded wiretap
authority after five years, along with other restraints. (The final
bill includes a four-year sunset.)
[...]
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Received on Nov 13 2001
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