Daily Ramblings:
Something There Is About You ...05/13/2005 04:10:16 pm
Tom Daschle's successor as Minority Leader, Harry
Reid, yesterday hit a new low, while attacking
President Bush's nominee for the 6th Circuit Court of
Appeals, Henry Saad:
Minority Leader
Harry Reid strayed from his prepared remarks on
the Senate floor yesterday and promised to
continue opposing one of President Bush's
judicial nominees based on "a problem"
he said is in the nominee's "confidential
report from the FBI."
Those highly confidential reports are filed on
all judicial nominees, and severe sanctions apply
to anyone who discloses their contents. Less
clear is whether a senator could face sanctions
for characterizing the content of such files.
His exact words were: "All you
need to do is have a member go upstairs and look at
his confidential report from the FBI, and I think we
would all agree that there is a problem there."
Knowing that what is in there
cannot be revealed and debated pubicly, he threw what
amounts to a piece of atomic innuendo at Judge Saad -
who himself has never seen that FBI file.
The Washington Times reports that
no Republican senators have as yet commented for the
record. Standing Rule Of The Senate
XXIX, Section 6 states:
Whenever, by
the request of the Senate or any committee
thereof, any documents or papers shall be
communicated to the Senate by the President or
the head of any department relating to any matter
pending in the Senate, the proceedings in regard
to which are secret or confidential under the
rules, said documents and papers shall be
considered as confidential, and shall not be
disclosed without leave of the Senate.
And the penalty for
violation is covered in Section 5:
Any Senator,
officer, or employee of the Senate who shall
disclose the secret or confidential business or
proceedings of the Senate, including the business
and proceedings of the committees, subcommittees,
and offices of the Senate, shall be liable, if a
Senator, to suffer expulsion from the body; and
if an officer or employee, to dismissal from the
service of the Senate, and to punishment for
contempt.
Is there a shred of doubt in
anyone's mind as to what would be the Democrats'
response if the situation were reversed and Bill
Frist had said something like this? Or Trent Lott?
Harry Reid and the Democrats have
recently held up the Senate Rules as some kind of
sacred (and unchangeable) text on which the stability
of our democracy rests. It's time to enforce those
rules.
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