White House Continues To Block Release Of Bolton Documents

When the Democrats successfully stopped the cloture of debate on the Bolton nomination to UN Ambassador, they did so because of the Administration's continued refusal to honor the Committee's request for information in its' Constitutional duty to Advise and Consent on Presidential nominations. The information they want concerns highly secret NSA "intercepts" of conversations specifically requested by Bolton because of suspicion that Bolton may have been using this information to spy on potential opponents in the administration and of equal concern is that he may have shared some of what he learned with others without proper authorization to do so (Bolton's response has been that any problems in that area weren't his fault but the fault of the intelligence agencies for not telling him he couldn't). Now the Boston Globe is reporting that: White House officials declined yesterday to give senators the extra documents they are seeking regarding John R. Bolton, President Bush's choice to become ambassador to the United Nations, setting up a major standoff with Senate Democrats over the long-troubled nomination. [snip] Democrats also want 10 National Security Agency intelligence intercepts that Bolton requested, to determine whether Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, acted appropriately by asking for the names of Americans mentioned in the documents. The White House has allowed the chairman and the ranking Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to review the intercepts, but only with the names of the 19 Americans mentioned in them blacked out. Well as you and I both know, when this Administration refuses to release documents or redacts portions of what they do release, it usually means they have something to hide. I hope the Democrats in the Senate continue to block cloture even in the face of being called obstructionists or accused of "filibustering". This Administration must be shown in no uncertain terms that King George cannot continue to ignore Congressional requests when it is imperative that they are needed to do their constitutional duty. Then again this President has shown time and time again that it has little regard for the Constitution. MORE....