Site Presented By
Thursday, Nov 26, 2009
Ashcroft seethes over Senate Democrats and the holdup over anti-terrorism legislation.
Oct 3, 2001 | Perhaps a return of public debates and partisan snipes can be seen as a good thing, a sign that we're returning to normal. If so, take comfort.
Attorney General John Ashcroft returned to his old stomping grounds in the U.S. Senate Tuesday where, standing with Republican Senate leaders, he complained about "the rather slow pace" Senate Democrats are displaying in dealing with his anti-terrorism bill.
In the closed-door confines of the Republican Senate policy lunch, the former Missouri senator was even harsher. According to a Senate GOP source, Ashcroft expressed serious frustration with the progress of the anti-terrorism bill. "He said he's had three weeks of meetings with [Vermont Sen. Pat] Leahy" -- the Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee -- "and the time for discussions is running out," the source said.
After the lunch, standing with Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Dick Shelby, R-Ala., the ranking Republicans on the judiciary and intelligence committees, respectively, Ashcroft made pointed comments that were a noted departure from the displays of patience and bipartisan cooperation that have marked congressional reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Talk won't prevent terrorism; tools can help prevent terrorism," Ashcroft said. "I'm deeply concerned about the rather slow pace at which we seem to be making this come true for America." Ashcroft said he visited the Congress to talk with senators and "to describe to them the kind of urgency that I feel that is necessary."
The remarks, taken with other comments the attorney general has made in the last few weeks, seem to reveal a law enforcement executive growing increasingly frustrated with Congress and its failure to act with the urgency and immediacy that have characterized the actions of the Justice Department and its agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Even with the new cooperative spirit in Washington, however, Ashcroft has been urging quick action on his proposed laws. In the last few weeks, he has been describing a "clear and present danger to Americans" that necessitates Congress to grant expanded powers to law enforcement to combat terrorism as soon as possible. On Tuesday he complained of an "urgency" that the Senate was not heeding, while House Democrats and Republicans came to an agreement on a similar bill earlier this week.
Ashcroft had met on Tuesday at 11 a.m. with Hatch, Leahy and White House counsel Al Gonzales. He must not have liked what he heard. Ashcroft had previously said that he hoped his anti-terrorism bill could pass by the end of the week, but according to a Democratic Senate leadership aide, there was only a "hope" that Ashcroft's bill could be scheduled for a vote by the end of the week.
According to Leahy spokesman David Carle, however, an agreement was within reach until Tuesday's 11 a.m. meeting. On Sunday night, Carle said, staffers representing all four negotiators -- Leahy, Hatch, Ashcroft and Gonzales -- finally came to an agreement on a sticking point, the matter of whether wiretapping and grand jury evidence about terrorism could be shared with other federal agencies, such as the intelligence agencies. The Bush administration wanted free and unfettered information sharing, whereas Leahy wanted more protections. A compromise had finally been reached, Carle said, where information about terrorism could be shared on an immediate basis as long as prosecutors provided notice to a judge after the fact. The information could be shared on a non-emergency basis by obtaining a court order.
When Leahy spoke to reporters after Ashcroft's comments, he at least suggested that Senate Democrats and the White House had reached some sort of understanding on the anti-terrorism bill earlier in the week, and he didn't understand the current problem. "Just now, I asked Vice President Cheney to please go back and find a way to solve this problem," Leahy said.
According to Carle, the Tuesday morning meeting was going to be a time for all four principals to sign off on the compromise, after which the bill would be sent to Lott and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., for decisions as to how the bill would best be introduced. But the meeting "started with Gonzales backing away from the crucial agreement Sunday night without explanation," Carle said. "And that was it for the meeting."
Leahy is "puzzled as to why he [Ashcroft] handled it this way," Carle said. "We clearly lost a day we didn't need to lose."
