Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, we on this program set the foundation for launching a counter-attack against Democrats in the Senate as they unveil their attacks on Alberto Gonzales tomorrow, it starts tomorrow, in his confirmation hearings to become the next attorney general. A couple of interesting newspaper stories today. First the Washington Post is reporting that one of the mysteries that surrounds Gonzales is the extent to which new legal approaches are his actual handiwork, rather than the work of others, particularly 
Vice President Cheney’s influential legal counsel, David Addington. The Washington Post claims that David Addington drafted an early version of a legal memo circulated to other departments in Gonzales’ name. So now they’re trying to bring Cheney into this as a way of getting even higher on the chain, as they get close to Bush — and make no mistake what else this is about, folks. In addition to this being an effort to destroy Gonzales, and in an effort to make… Well, not an effort; this is clearly a position the Democrats in the Senate are taking to come to the defense of terrorists, to pretend that they are no different than American citizens and should be granted the rights of due process. And they are going to say that Gonzales does not believe in human rights for any American because he is willing to do what he did or authorize what he authorized in terms of the detainment and questioning of prisoners at G’itmo.
In other words, the Democrats are going to say that if we let Gonzales and the U.S. government get away with these kind of tactics at G’itmo against prisoners of war from Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, that no American is safe from torture, and no American is safe from this kind of thing. It’s absolutely ridiculous as they attempt to equate prisoners of war from G’itmo who have ties to Al-Qaeda, therefore 9/11, and other terrorist acts, compare them to American citizens and seek that they be treated that way. There’s no other way to put this. The Democrats in the Senate will tomorrow come to the defense of terrorists attacking, of mass murderers attacking this country.
Now, this Washington Post story. Who are these clowns kidding? They’re not kidding me, ladies and gentlemen. I know how these things work up there. Memos are always circulated; input from all kinds of officials. There is no single hand that writes a memo for the whole administration and then gets automatically implemented. These things get written, they get circulated, people have suggestions, input is made, things are taken out. It’s the way this always happens. Trying to criminalize this, now, and make it look as though this is some sort of act of secrecy that the American people have a right to know about, when it’s the normal functioning in the White House counsel’s office. What’s the issue here? There is none. As for turning over documents, Leahy, we have him on tape coming up, Senator Depends. By the way, his nickname is leaky because Senator Leahy was thrown off of the Senate intelligence committee back in the 80s for leaking information about a planned attack on Libya, I believe it was. So he was thrown off the committee. He dares now sit in judgment of people like Alberto Gonzales. But anyway, since he leaked that his nickname on this program is “Leaky,” and of course if you are leaky, you need Depends. Just want to make sure you understand this.
Senator Depends is demanding that Gonzales turn over all these documents that will show this memo trail, that will somehow demonstrate the secrecy and the clandestineness of this administration trying to hide brutal torture tactics from the American people. Well, as for “turning over documents,” I remember Bill Clinton arguing that advice he received from his government lawyers was confidential and privileged. Remember? They tried to turn everything into executive privilege in the Clinton White House. They lost the argument, I remember that, too, but he lost the argument because he was attempting to cover up his obstructionism in the Paula Jones case. Here, there’s no cover-up of anything going on. There’s no attempted cover-up of anything happening here. This is strictly legal advice related to government business which every court has held as executive branch privileged under the separation of powers doctorate. Now, they tried this same thing on Cheney and his energy task force, and they lost at every step of the way in the federal court system. But they’re doing it here knowing full well they’ll probably lose this. But the problem is the process they’re engaging in. They want the process to make it look like Gonzales is hiding something.
This is all a show. It’s all intended to give them the ammo. “Oh, Gonzales won’t release the memos? Oh, the White House won’t release the memos? Is that right?” They don’t have to: Separation of powers. Same thing as in the Cheney energy task force case. Doesn’t matter to the Democrats. They’re going to say there’s something secret going on being held back from the American people, and until we get the memos we don’t know what kind of torture
is planned for Americans because of Alberto Gonzales, or some such thing, when nothing is being hidden. Folks, don’t forget this. Alberto Gonzales is the first Hispanic-American ever nominated to be attorney general, just as Miguel Estrada was the first Hispanic-American to ever be nominated to the D.C. circuit court of appeals, and these liberal white Democrats are trying to now smear a second Hispanic. Never let that escape your mind. The people who claim to be open-minded, nondiscriminatory, tolerant, and all of that are themselves racists in addition to everything else they are being. Liberal white Democrats trying to smear a second Hispanic. These are the same liberals who backed the incompetent and disgraceful Janet Reno all the way to the end.
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Hey, I’d like to ask Senator Depends: When you have written legislation, Leaky, do you just do it yourself, or do you circulate the legislation? Does your staff write it? Do you let cosponsoring senators have input on your legislation, or does it just end up being written by one person? And then what would happen, senator, if the White House demanded that you turn over all the documents that went into writing your legislation? What do you think your reaction would be? You’d go on television and stand up and start talking about separation of powers, executive branch overreaching and all of the sort. “Advise and consent” does not give you, senator, the right to see every memo between the president and his counsel because of separation of powers. You’re going to go in there and make it look like they’re denying you access so that you can say that they’re doing something secret or doing something they don’t want anybody to know about because they won’t let you have it when they’re not required by law to let you have it. Same thing with the energy task force, as I keep saying, on the part of Cheney. Now, here’s the New York Times version of the story today:
“Bush’s Counsel Sought Ruling About Torture — Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel, intervened directly with Justice Department lawyers in 2002 to obtain a legal ruling on the extent of the president’s authority to permit extreme interrogation practices in the name of national security, current and former administration officials said Tuesday.” So what? So he asked for a legal ruling from the justice department. What do you mean, “intervened directly”? He can’t “intervene;” he’s the White House counsel, for crying out loud! Intervene? “Mr. Gonzales’s role in seeking a legal opinion on the definition of torture and the legal limits on the force that could be used on terrorist suspects in captivity is expected to be a central issue in the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings scheduled to begin on Thursday on Mr. Gonzales’s nomination to be attorney general.” Now they’re trying to make this memo appear to be so controversial, then try to smear everybody who participated in preparing it. They want to know who wrote it, who was involved in it, who says it; who touched it; who saw it. Who gives a damn — unless of course your concern is with the protection of the terrorists.
No one is urging torture. The memo doesn’t urge torture. The liberals are trying to define torture down so as to include legitimate interrogation techniques, folks. Now, some of you Democrats may be offended when I keep saying that these senators are going to end up acting as defense lawyers, as defense counsel for terrorists, POWs who are in G’itmo and other places, and you may just say, “You can’t say that!” Let me ask you a question: How would they be acting any differently if they were? If they were hired to defend these people, how would they be acting any differently than they are today? And that’s the point. It may not be their purpose, although I have doubts, but it may not be their purpose. But the practical effect of what they’re doing is the same, to try to smear anybody who participated in this memo that does not urge torture, doesn’t urge torture. The libs are trying to define torture down so as to include legitimate interrogation techniques.
Ladies and gentlemen, some points here. First, it’s time we demand that these Democrats produce for us an explanation on what due process rights they want to confer on these terrorists. It’s time to turn the tables on these people. It’s time to go on offense and say just what is it. You better produce it for us, an explanation on what due process rights you want to confer on these people. We know already that they can petition a court and get a lawyer. The Supreme Court said that, but what else? Can they call witnesses? Can they demand that evidence be excluded? Can they assert Miranda rights? Do they have the right not to incriminate themselves? The point is this: We don’t confer rights on detainees during war as if they’re U.S. citizens, and yet that’s where this is headed. We also do not superimpose the criminal justice system on detainees. We use war standards. That’s why we look to laws like the relevant Geneva Conventions, which gives terrorists no protection whatsoever. There is no crime. There’s no hint of a crime. There’s zilch, zero, nada here — and that is why the left wants to confer rights on these detainees as if they’re homegrown criminals.
Second, let’s be clear about something, folks. All these so-called human rights groups like People for the American Way and so forth, ACLU, all these Democrats, they claim to be standing up for human dignity and human rights. Well, like hell they are. If they would confer rights on a terrorist who seeks to blow up New York City, how in the world are they standing up for human rights? What about the human rights of the victims? What about the human rights of future potential victims to be protected from war criminals such as this? If you give 
these people the standard protections of American citizens who are accused of crimes, you endanger millions of Americans, particularly if the views of these Democrats become adopted as government policy. Endangering the security of millions of innocent people is in no way moral or civil. It is evil. Third, the president of the United States is commander-in-chief in wartime, not Supreme Court justices Kennedy and O’Connor, not Senators Kennedy and Leaky and Durbin. Nine unelected lawyers serving on the Supreme Court and a bunch of committees of Congress whose members include the likes of Ted Kennedy and Patrick Leahy are incapable of leading this nation during war.
We could not trust the leadership of this nation to these people during the past election, and the American people realize this — and the Framers understood this. The idea that anyone other than the president is best suited to lead an effort such as this is nuts. There are not 100 secretaries of state in the Senate. There are not 100 secretaries of defense, but they all think they are and they all think they want to be, and the U.S. Supreme Court falls under the same umbrella, and finally, let’s be clear about something else. This is crucial to understanding what’s going on here. The left — hear me on this, folks; I’m going to expand on this because I’m going to run out of time here. The left in this country, the elites, cannot win elections anymore. The American people reject them every four years at the ballot box. They are so far out of the mainstream of America’s values and belief system that even when they run their candidates for president on a strategy of concealing their liberalism, they almost always lose. So what do they need to do? They need to go over the heads of the American electorate. They tried to do this in our courts, but they need a more comprehensive and systematic way. So in essence what you do, is you change the electorate. You change the population that you appeal to, to be more precise. So you say, “We need to let the UN handle this, or make sure the French and the Germans like us.” You go to a worldwide bunch of socialists who will support what you’re doing when the American people won’t, and try to get them on your side to pressure the American people.
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