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Dick Cheney to Arlen Specter: I'll Talk to Senators Whenever I Want
Vice President Dick Cheney Thursday defended himself against accusations by a leading Republican senator that he worked to thwart Senate plans to make telephone executives testify at a hearing about a U.S. domestic spying program. A day after Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter rebuked Cheney for trying to head off subpoenas of the phone company executives, Cheney acknowledged that he had spoken to Senate leaders and members of Specter's committee. He said in a letter to Specter that he acted when the administration became concerned about a "compulsory process to force testimony" in a matter that could involve classified information. However, he said, his contacts with senators were "not unusual" and that in his role as vice president, "I have frequent contact with senators, both at their initiative and mine."
Story Continues Below "The respectful and candid exchange of views is something to be encouraged rather than avoided," Cheney said. Specter had written to Cheney to protest his role in what the Pennsylvania senator said was a larger White House effort to keep the courts and Congress from examining constitutional questions raised by the warrantless eavesdropping program. Specter said Cheney had asked Republicans to oppose "any ... hearing, even a closed one" and advised lawmakers that the companies were "not to provide any information to the committee as they were prohibited from disclosing classified information." Specter said Cheney's action prompted him to delay plans to subpoena the executives. The subpoenas would compel executives to testify about what role their companies may have played in the spy program. The domestic spying program, which President Bush ordered soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, allows the National Security Agency to monitor the international phone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens without first obtaining warrants if in pursuit of al-Qaida suspects. Cheney said that his conversations with the senators took place after White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten raised the concerns with Specter himself.
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