Congresswoman Demands President and Attorney General Give Wiretapping Documents to Congress

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter proposed bill HR 644 to the House Judiciary Committee. Here is the preamble of that bill explaining its purpose.

Requesting the President and directing the Attorney General to transmit to the House of Representatives not later than 14 days after the date of the adoption of this resolution documents in the possession of those officials relating to the authorization of electronic surveillance of citizens of the United States without court approved warrants.

This was not a bill of substance. There was never any chance it would pass out of Committee due to an investigation already in progress by the Department of Justice. The Committee in fact felt that to make documents public related to national security would set a dangerous precedent. I agree with that assessment. Congress is the biggest source for Washington gossip.

This bill was a designed for campaign strategy. The Democrats need to keep the wire-tapping issue at the forefront of voters minds. They have to maintain their push to keep a potential weakness of the Republicans in the headlines.

The problem with this tactic is that it can only be maintained for so long. It takes a lot of effort to keep a headline fresh. This issue will only make it to voters in November if there are further developments in the investigation between now and November. Any attempt to manufacture a way to keep it at the top of the news would result in a backlash at the polls.