Noted Constitutional Stickler Patrick Leahy: We Must Maintain Obama's Pay Grade During Government Shutdown

Among the most frequently asked questions regarding a potential federal government shutdown are:

Will Grandma still receive her Social Security check?
Will the military and law enforcement still function as usual?
Will Dear Leader's six-figure salary be impacted in the slightest?

The answers are yes, yes, and "Chillax, America."

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) also scolded Boxer at the time for presenting an amendment that he said was unconstitutional.

Leahy pointed out that the Constitution explicitly states that the president’s salary “shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected.”

“The Constitution specifically prohibits that,” Leahy told Boxer.

Strange how the same kooky left-wing windbag who didn't give a rip about the Constitution while Obamacare was being shoved down our throats is suddenly anal retentive about touching Obama's salary.

Cross-posted.

Hatch: Hey, How About Supreme Court Justice Hillary?

Doesn't this present an interesting quandary? Do we support getting her out of State, thereby preventing any further bungling incompetence and alienation of our allies? Or is the risk of having her on the Supreme Court for life too much to bear?

Big upside: The robe will prevent us from seeing those hideous pantsuits and believe me, that's a huge plus.

Sen. Orrin Hatch says he's heard Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's name mentioned in connection with the Supreme Court vacancy brought about by the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens.

Hatch didn't elaborate in an interview Monday. Appearing with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy on NBC's "Today" show, the Utah Republican said only, "I heard Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's name today and that would be an interesting person in the mix."

Hatch wouldn't say whether he'd support Clinton. But he did say "I like Hillary Rodham Clinton" and said he thinks she's done a good job for Democrats.

Let's face it. She'd breeze through confirmation hearings since she's a known commodity. It would also spare Obama any further political damage rather than going the far left route that's sure to rifle feathers in an already heated atmosphere.

Unless he's really itching for a fight, it would be a safe pick. Whether her legal acumen is up to snuff we'll let the lawyers out there decide that. Any thoughts?

Thanks to Hot Air for the link.

Ding Dong, The 'Truth Commission' Is Dead

The death throes of Bush Derangement Syndrome? It appears so.

Editor’s Note: The U.S. government seems paralyzed at the prospect of holding ex-President George W. Bush and other senior officials accountable for war crimes, even as Spanish investigative judge Baltasar Garzon initiates an inquiry under international law regarding torture sanctioned by Bush’s lawyers.

In this guest essay, investigative journalist and former candidate for Vermont attorney general, Charlotte Dennett, describes a meeting with Sen. Patrick Leahy in which he acknowledges the failure of his plan for a “truth commission”:

Those of you following the George W. Bush prosecution trail will be interested to know that Patrick Leahy’s “truth commission” is a no-go. I was in a meeting with Leahy and four other Vermonters on Monday when he broke the news to us.

The crackpots will go to their graves swearing Bush is a war criminal. I hope they suffer.

Leahy’s own aversion to appointing a special prosecutor appeared to be more practical than philosophical.

”We don’t want another Abu Ghraib,” he said. “You know, ‘Boy, did we get those privates and corporals.’ So many up on high will never get touched. It’s like the war on drugs – ‘let’s get those black kids on cocaine.’”

So it’s not that Leahy had a problem with prosecutions per se. “I just worry that the prosecutions will be done only on middle-level people,” he said.

Well then, what would happen to the higher-ups? Leahy had said, on previous occasions, that the purpose of his truth commission was to grant immunity to those willing to testify – presumably middle-level people – and we could infer from that that they, in turn, would spill the beans on their superiors.

If any of the witnesses lied under oath or were less than thorough in their answers, Leahy had told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow a month ago, they could be prosecuted for perjury. But that still left the fate of high government officials uncertain.

Leahy had hinted to Maddow that if officials refused to honor subpoenas, they, too could be prosecuted. But in the real world, as Monday’s news suggests, the people most responsible for the crimes will continue to get off free.

Or maybe, just maybe, there's nothing there. I guess these idiots never considered that.

Senator Depends Snares Batman Role

It's a little sketchy as to the role he plays, but if they're looking to cast a dyspeptic, angry, Depends-wearing liberal hack, then they've found their man.

Sen. Leahy lands role in Batman movie

BURLINGTON, Vt. - Holy Beltway, Batman! Sen. Patrick Leahy has a part in the next Batman movie.
click here

"I don't wear tights," the Vermont Democrat said.

Leahy's scene was filmed this summer for "The Dark Knight" and involves Batman, played by Christian Bale, The Joker, played by Heath Ledger, and Alfred Pennyworth, played by Michael Caine.

The longtime Batman fan would reveal little about his role other than he is called the "distinguished gentleman."

Distinguished gentleman?

Definitely fiction.

Pathetic Leahy Demands More Documents

The Democrats just get more pathetic by the day. Their endless investigations that go nowhere are likely just one reason why their approval ratings are at a record low of 14%, more than twice as low as President Bush, who has been rebounding in the polls despite the incessant whining and sniveling by the left.

The latest demand is from Vermont fossil Patrick "Leaky" Leahy, a grouchy old fart who really needs to hang it up. His hatred has so consumed him, he may just keel over and die on the Senate floor.

Leahy sets Aug. 20 deadline for NSA eavesdropping documents

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has given the White House until Aug. 20 to turn over internal documents on the NSA warrantless eavesdropping program. Leahy does not specify what will happen if the White House does not comply with the demand, but the House Judiciary Committee has already voted out a contempt citation against White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers in a similar situation. The full House may take up the contempt citation next month.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved subpoenas for the White House and Justice Department on the NSA program in late June, with a July 18 date set for complying with the demand. When Bolten and White House counsel Fred Fielding asked for more time to review the issue, Leahy agreed, and a new Aug. 1 deadline was set.

But according to a letter that Leahy sent to Fielding below, the White House has not shown any willingness to negotiate over the subpoenas. Leahy now wants the materials by Aug. 20, setting up another showdown with the White House over the extent of congressional subpoena power.

It's unclear where this moron thinks any of this leads.

The American people have no problem eavesdropping on our enemies, and the more the Democrats show favoritism towards terrorists, the better off the GOP will be.

Investigation fatigue has set in, especially when nothing will come of any of this.

Bush Invokes Executive Privilege, Senator Depends Wets Himself

The Democrats are having yet another childish hissyfit now that President Bush has invoked executive privilege over the nonscandal involving the firings of U.S. attorneys, which they still don't seem to realize nobody cares about. The usual suspects on the left are apoplectic and my favorite rant comes from none othert than the kooky old man from Vermont.

Apparently, Senator Leaky Leahy (D-Moonbat) said this with a straight face.

"This is a further shift by the Bush Administration into Nixonian stonewalling and more evidence of their disdain for our system of checks and balances. This White House cannot have it both ways. They cannot stonewall congressional investigations by refusing to provide documents and witnesses, while claiming nothing improper occurred.

"Increasingly, the President and Vice President feel they are above the law --- in America no one is above law."

Unless you're a Democrat, of course.

Senate Looks to Restore Rights for Terrorists

It's bad enough these morons want to give criminal aliens citizenship, but now the Senate also wants to bestow rights on the scum at Gitmo. Never in my memory has a country gone out of its way to commit suicide.

Guantanamo prisoners and other foreigners got a step closer to regaining the right to challenge their detention in the U.S. courts in a bill approved in a U.S. Senate committee on Thursday.

The Judiciary Committee voted 11-8 to send the proposal to the full Senate for debate, with Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania the lone Republican joining the Democratic majority.

Congress last year revoked the rights of foreign terrorism suspects labeled "enemy combatants" to challenge their detention by the United States. The Bush administration said it was necessary to prevent them from attacking Americans if freed.

The move affected about 380 suspected al Qaeda and Taliban captives held at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba. It could also affect 12 million legal residents of the United States who are not U.S. citizens, said the committee chairman, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record) of Vermont.

"I hope the Senate will reconsider the historic error in judgment," Leahy said.

Putting Leaky Leahy in the Senate, now there's a historic error in judgment.

Democrats Urge More Rights for Gitmo Monsters

Whose side are they on? Sure isn't ours.

Democrats Hope to Expand Rights at Guantánamo

A day after two military judges ruled against the Bush administration’s system for trying terrorism detainees, Democrats seized on the rulings on Tuesday as evidence that Congress should restore the right of those held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to challenge their detentions.

Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who is the majority leader, said he would be willing to bring such legislation to the floor. The Senate Judiciary Committee is preparing to approve such a plan on Thursday.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said the rulings on Monday in two cases added urgency to the push to restore detainees’ right to file habeas corpus suits. Congress eliminated that right last year while redesigning the military tribunals after the Supreme Court struck down the first plan.

They're out of their minds.

UPDATE: More at Hot Air.

Senate Panel OKs Subpoenas

Shameless political whores Charles Schumer and Patrick Leahy know when they have a good thing going, and they plan to milk this nonscandal for all it's worth. Schumer, in particular, is obsessed with Karl Rove, his intellectual superior, and just hates the fact he's never been able to nail him for anything.

Senate Panel OKs Subpoenas for Key Aides

A Senate panel, following the House's lead, authorized subpoenas Thursday for White House political adviser Karl Rove and other top aides involved in the firing of federal prosecutors.

The Senate Judiciary Committee decided by voice vote to approve the subpoenas as Republicans and Democrats sparred over whether to press a showdown with President Bush over the ousters of eight U.S. attorneys.

Democrats angrily rejected Bush's offer to grant a limited number of lawmakers private interviews with the aides with no transcript and without swearing them in. Republicans counseled restraint, but at least one, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, backed the action.

A House Judiciary subcommittee authorized subpoenas in the matter Wednesday, but none has been issued.

Democrats said the move would give them more bargaining power in negotiating with the White House to hear from Bush's closest advisers.

"We're authorizing that ability but we're not issuing them," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said of the subpoenas. "It'll only strengthen our hand in getting to the bottom of this."

Republicans countered, however, that subpoenas were premature.

"I counsel my colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, to work hard to avoid an impasse. We don't need a constitutional confrontation," said Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the panel's top Republican.

Still, in the end, I think the truculent, childlike behavior by these buffoons will backfire. The White House needs to stick to their guns, however, and cannot fold under the relentless pressure from the drive-by media.

What's All the Fuss?

The way the drive-by media is hyperventilating over eight U.S. attorneys having been dismissed, you'd think we're in the midst of a Constitutional meltdown. I could see if they all had the goods on President Bush and he decided to dismiss them in the dead of night. But really, if I have to see Charles Schumer and Patrick Leahy gravely intoning how the republic cannot continue on, I'm going to vomit.

To put things in perspective, all you need to know is in 1993, Bill Clinton had Janet Reno summarily dismiss 93 U.S. Attorneys, which, while suspicious on its face, is perfectly legal. And what was the media reaction? They had no problem with it, as noted by Brent Bozell.

Brit Hume also takes the media to task.

“News stories reporting that the Bush administration had considered firing all 93 U.S. attorneys across the country failed to mention that that is exactly what Bill Clinton did soon after taking office back in 1993. The only sitting U.S. attorney Clinton did not cashier was Michael Chertoff, now the Bush Homeland Security Secretary. At the time Chertoff was U.S. attorney in New Jersey and then Democratic Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey intervened to save Chertoff's job. None of this was noted, even in passing, in front-page stories today in the New York Times and the Washington Post, or in the AP's story on the subject. By the way, the mass Clinton firings generated some news stories, some complaints from Republicans in Congress, but no congressional investigations, and not a word from Chuck Schumer.”

Sweetness & Light further exposes the rank media hypocrisy.