The Daily Background

The Hill has an article out, about how Arlen Specter (R-PA, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee) was briefed on Monday about the Administration’s warrantless wiretapping program in hopes of understanding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ obsfucated defense of his rhetoric in last week’s hearings.

Specter emerged from the meeting saying the Administration had 18 hours to produce a letter explaining Gonzales’ defense, with that deadline ending at noon Tuesday. Apparently the Administration has said they will send him and Senate Judiciary Chair Pat Leahy (D-VT) a letter as he has requested, and that letter will be subsequently released to the media by Specter’s office. More:

Specter aides released a statement late Monday that suggested a bombshell to come on Tuesday afternoon.
[…]
“Given the difficulty of discussing classified matters in public, I think it is preferable to have a letter addressing that question [of Gonzales’ veracity] from the administration … by noon tomorrow, which will be made available to the news media,” Specter wrote in the statement. “The administration has committed to producing such a letter.”

Specter expects the letter clarifying the attorney general’s testimony to be addressed to himself and Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who declined to comment on the matter.

Specter was equally cagey, telling reporters to wait until Tuesday for any further comment from him.

Specter didn’t say anything about Sunday’s NYT article which seems now to have been leaked by DoJ officials sympathetic to Gonzales in a feeble attempt to defend him. We’ll see this afternoon I guess.

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