One of the things Leahy’s PATRIOT reauthorization does is incorporate and/or undercut Feingold’s efforts supporting a more sweeping reform of domestic counterterrorism efforts.

Pat Leahy made it clear yesterday that Jay Bybee had blown off Leahy’s invitation to testify before SJC. I expect we’ll be hearing more about this in the future.

It’s not just Pat Leahy who thinks the FBI story about anthrax is bogus–it’s pretty much everyone who has examined the case.

Michael Mukasey’s

Use this thread to liveblog EITHER the FISA debate or the Senate Mukasey hearing.

The Republicans purportedly negotiating FISA with Conyers, Reyes, Leahy, and Jello Jay told their staffers to skip the meeting.

Ben Cardin, Pat Leahy, and Sheldon Whitehouse question Mukasey.

Arlen Specter, Chuck Grassley, Chuck Schumer, John Cornyn, Pat Leahy, and Sheldon Whitehouse question Mukasey (beginning of second round).

Arlen Specter, Chuck Grassley, Herb Kohl, Jeff Sessions, Joe Biden, Pat Leahy, Sam Brownback, and Ted Kennedy question Mukasey.

Michael Mukasey has engaged in a remarkable bit of sophistry with his refusal to clue Congress in on the joint DOJ/CIA IG investigation into the destruction of the torture tapes. He explains his decision as an attempt to avoid “any perception that our law enforcement decisions are subject to political influence.”

Of course, the “political influence” Mukasey was asked to address during his nomination hearings was the kind exerted when a Senator or a Congresswoman called the Attorney General privately to demand that a USA either accelerate the prosecution of a political figure or be fired. In this matter, Mukasey has been asked to respond to what is an almost unparalleled degree of bipartisan support for an open inquiry into a matter that just stinks, already, of a cover-up. Leahy and Specter (and Reyes and Hoekstra and Durbin and Biden and more) called for a procedure that had oversight built in.

And Mukasey said no.