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.) [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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