Actual exchange from
tonight's panel on civil liberties and the War on Terror, right here at GULC:[Moderator Wolf Blitzer and Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) were discussing Specter's introduction of legislation requiring the Bush administration to seek a FISA Court ruling as to the legality of the secret wiretap program.]
Blitzer: (interrupting Specter) And has the Administration gone along with your proposal?
Specter: Excuse me, who?
Blitzer: Has the Administration...
Specter: (with mock growing indignation) Excuse me, WHO???
(some laughter from audience)
Blitzer: Has the Administration gone along with your proposal?
Specter: NO! No they have NOT gone along with it! (loud laughter from audience) This administration will not go along with anything that deviates from its line on this issue!
Otherwise, the panel was a fascinating civic debate. Prof Katyal represented, Berenson looked and acted like a stereotypical Republican stable lawyer with a stick up his rear, Harman looked like Rod Stewart.
Poor Seymour Hersh was left in a tough spot as an outsider - he wasn't a lawyer, politician, or former government insider - and could only voice the sort of big-picture liberal critiques that so many of us citizens have become accustomed to nodding our heads with (viz. showings of Fahrenheit 9/11), but which didn't leave him with much of a leg to stand on in terms of drawing from his numerous, on-the-ground, but confidential and anecdotal sources.
And Senator Specter... well, I think a lot of us want to work with him now, especially including many of us non-Republicans! He came off as a true elder statesman, a Republican of principle who was deeply concerned with the original constitutional structure of our government. He also came off as a man of great humor, albeit of a very deadpan variety. I might not agree with everything he does (viz. approving the Roberts and Alito nominations), but I have an enormous respect for him after seeing him in the flesh.