Well, At Least She’d Know.
Oh yes, this kind of thing could only be done by a professional and lifelong politician:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, drawing on her experiences as a young Watergate lawyer who decades later was investigated as first lady, urged creation of a “privacy bill of rights” Friday to protect people’s personal data.
Now, what gives her that kind of expertise? Read on.
A potential presidential candidate in 2008 whose eight years as first lady were marked by numerous investigations, Clinton noted her work on a House committee investigating the Nixon administration’s illegal snooping and other abuses.
And she ruefully called herself an “expert” in the loss of privacy.
“Having lost so much of my own privacy in recent years I have a deep appreciation of its value and a firm commitment to protecting it for all the rest of you,” she said, prompting laughter from the audience of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.
See, I can’t remember what privacy she’s lost lately, or in the past ten years. It’s not like someone had gotten hold of her FBI file and used it illegally. It’s not like the previous White House monkeyed around with IRS investigations or anything either.
I’d say that Senator Clinton is indeed an expert on the violation of privacy, but I doubt seriously that she wants her expertise really discussed.
There’s also a curious quote from the Senator at the end of the article.
Clinton said any president should have the latest technology to track terrorists, but within laws that provide for oversight by judges.
“The administration’s refrain has been, ‘Trust us,’ ” Clinton said. “That’s unacceptable. Their track record doesn’t warrant our trust. …
“Unchecked mass surveillance without judicial review may sometimes be legal but it is dangerous. Every president should save those powers for limited critical situations.”
Setting aside her husband’s own domestic surveillance proposals and her deliberate misstatement of what the NSA has been doing, it appears that she has unintentionally endorsed the President’s NSA program.
After all, the NSA program targets specific international telephone numbers of enemy personnel in the middle of a war. That is the very definition of “limited” and “critical”? You’d have to contort yourself into some awfully uncomfortable positions to say otherwise. It’s nice of the Senator to finally acknowledge that common-sense point.
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Category: President George Bush
