Yesterday on NBC’s Meet the Press, US Senators Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer were on to discuss war powers, leaks, Iraq and illegal immigration. Both of these Senators stabed us in the back on the issue of illegal immigration (I want them both out of office), but on issues like the Al Qaeda 5, leaks and Iraq McConnell is better than Schumer. (Given their previous vote on illegal immigration, I could care less about what either had to say about it yesterday and so it’s not included in the audio clip below.)

Their discussion started with the latest action by the Al Qaeda 5. (US Supreme Court denying the President’s authority to subject terrorists to military tribunals.) Schumer claimed the Executive branch should review it’s “arrogations of power”. A term used only when speaking of something done without authorization. Given we are at war, the President is the authority and he has already reviewed his actions with legal council. But in an attempt to play to his Liberal base, that has no respect for Presidential war powers when the President is named “Bush”, Schumer said.

But there’s one other thing that ought to be done, Andrea, given the sweeping nature of this decision, not so much on the specifics of what can be done, but on how it ought to be done. I think—I’ve, I’ve sent a letter today to Attorney General Gonzales asking that they do a review now in light of this decision of all their other arrogations of power so we avoid this mess again two years later on these other issues, whether it’s wire taps or anything else, where the administration just said unilaterally, “We can do whatever we want.” That is not how the United States works.

In other words, he’s OK with the the Al Qaeda 5 and would like the Executive branch to give all it’s war time powers to him Congress.

They moved on to the latest NY Times leak of classified information. Their latest effort to hurt the war on terror, although once upon a time it was the NY Times demanding that President George W. Bush do more to cut off terrorist financing around the world.

Schumer feels national security has not been compromised, although the NY Times called it a “SECRET” program!!!

Below is a quote where Schumer makes the claim. The first words below are part of Schumer’s long winded babbling.

(emphasis added)

The—there are exceptions. One is if it harms national security. Now all of these statements by the president and others are jumping the gun. We don’t know if it’s harmed national security. In fact, I’ve been on the Banking Committee for six years. It is broad public knowledge, stated by administration officials…

MS. MITCHELL: Have you been briefed on this?

SEN. SCHUMER: I have not been briefed privately on this program, but we’ve had people come before the Banking Committee, publicly, from Treasury and other departments. And this is—the White House has made statements, others have made statements, that we monitor and track terrorist financing.

MS. MITCHELL: Well…

SEN. SCHUMER: It’s been successful, so that you look at the reports, the terrorists don’t use the banks as much. So to jump out front and just blast a newspaper that they may not like, that, to me, is totally wrong. It’s, it’s the guilty verdict first and then the trial. Mitch—Pat Roberts has called for an investigation, fine, let it be a fair…

MS. MITCHELL: The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

SEN. SCHUMER: Yeah. Let it be a fair and down-the-middle investigation. My guess: It will find that national security was not compromised a jot.

MS. MITCHELL: Well, let me pick up on that, because Treasury Secretary Snow took a group of reporters on a trip to Afghanistan and other parts of the world to show off how they were tracking terror financing. So, Senator McConnell, do they want to have it both ways? Do they want to brag about their success record in tracking this financing, and at the same time yell and scream about the reporters when they print the stories?

SEN. McCONNELL: Well, look, I think the leaks are abominable and printing of the leaks is certainly troubling. You can talk in general about what we’re doing without revealing the specifics. And I think we all regret that the, that the Times and other publications chose to do that. And I think the president essentially had it correctly.

Michelle Malkin found that NY Times ombudsman Byron Calame mentioned that “Hundreds, if not thousands, of people know about this”. So if thousands of people know about a secret anti-terror program, we are to assume that all of our enemies know about its details and report the program to the entire world of over 6 billion people? Even with “thousands” knowing about a program it’s certain that some of our enemies are not aware of it. But to report it to the world publicly revealing details never before reported ensures that all of our enemies know about it. Which is why some parties working with us sometimes drop out of these programs after NY Times leaks! Those helping us felt things were secret and once the secret is made public they no longer feel they are secure in working with the US Government, to fight terrorists that want to kill them too.

We all know certain thieves know how to defeat alarm systems we use to protect our personal property. But we keep using those systems, because we know plenty of thieves do not know how to defeat them and making a big story about it would not help us in securing our personal property. That is how the NY Times hurts national security, but on a much worse scale. The enemy never knew the details they know now. We have not had an attack on US soil since 9/11, plenty of terrorists continue to be caught and it would be best to keep it that way! Expose the Left found a related cartoon.

Schumer was able to use his babbling tactics to spin the discussion into Iraq. But was unable to show that Democrats would actually be able to deliver anything better if they were in power. Because Democrats have no plan, just complaints and the desire to let the enemy know when they can try and takeover, by giving a set deadline for withdrawal.

I’m sure our enemies enjoyed Schumer’s appearance yesterday.

Hear it using the audio link below.
McConnell and Schumer discuss war powers, NY Times leaks and Iraq - WMA Audio
(For the sake of bandwidth there will be no other formats made.)