Thursday, June 05, 2008

The Hill: Bush Bypasses Bond on FISA

Rockefeller: "He's not really in it."

From The Hill:

The Bush administration is talking directly with Democrats over rewriting the nation’s surveillance laws and leaving the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee out of the debate, a senior Senate Democrat said Wednesday.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said that negotiations were occurring without Sen. Kit Bond (Mo.), the ranking Republican on the panel.

“He’s not really in it,” Rockefeller said.

Rockefeller said that Bond had made the talks more difficult by insisting he have private negotiations with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), a move Rockefeller called a “non-starter.”

“You know, Bond, he’s just complicating things,” Rockefeller said. “And I’ve never talked to him about [his one-on-one talks with Hoyer], so I don’t understand it.”

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