Congressional Democrats complicit in illegal surveillance?

by Jay McDonough

It did seem yesterday that Vice President Cheney was not just unapologetic about the Bush Administrations frequent disregard for that triviality the rest of us refer to as the Constitution, he seemed almost boastful and not at all concerned there would be any ramifications for his actions.

After all, the public and the media seem for the most part unconcerned about law breaking by the Executive Branch, be it coercive interrogation or illegal surveillance.  And the Vice President knows Congressional Democrats, for whatever mysterious reason, don't have the spine to hold anyone in the Bush Administration accountable for, what are clear, violations of federal statutes.

But an exchange between Mr. Cheney and FOX News Sunday host, Chris Wallace, may have shed some light on Congressional Democrats lack of enthusiasm for oversight. 

CHENEY: Well, let me tell you a story about the terror surveillance program. We did brief the Congress. And we brought in...
WALLACE: Well, you briefed a few members.
CHENEY: We brought in the chairman and the ranking member, House and Senate, and briefed them a number of times up until — this was — be from late '01 up until '04 when there was additional controversy concerning the program.
At that point, we brought in what I describe as the big nine — not only the intel people but also the speaker, the majority and minority leaders of the House and Senate, and brought them into the situation room in the basement of the White House.
I presided over the meeting. We briefed them on the program, and what we'd achieved, and how it worked, and asked them, "Should we continue the program?" They were unanimous, Republican and Democrat alike. All agreed — absolutely essential to continue the program.
I then said, "Do we need to come to the Congress and get additional legislative authorization to continue what we're doing?" They said, "Absolutely not. Don't do it, because it will reveal to the enemy how it is we're reading their mail."

There's no criticism here of the Administration's stated goal to keep us safe.  And none for implementing electronic surveillance to monitor communications between suspected terrorists.  However, rather than working with Congress to develop appropriate legislation that allowed broad and timely surveillance, the Administration chose instead to begin a program that violated federal law and worked to keep it secret - with the encouragement and help of these Congressional Democrats. 

It's been reported that something similar occured with the implementation of torture - Bush Administration officials developed the rationale and techniques and subsequently briefed key members of Congress, including high ranking Democrats.  And either acquiescing or accepting, those Democrats chose to remain silent.

There's plenty of reasons to doubt Mr. Cheney here.  But those high ranking Congressional Democrats who were most likely briefed, including Speaker Pelosi, Rep. Harman,  and Sen. Rockefeller, have a responsiblity to set the record straight.  Were they complicit in the Bush Administration's violation of the law?

(h/t Glenn Greenwald)