Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

In the old days, having a “party line” meant that telephone customers shared the same network line for their calls. If someone picked up the phone when you were on a call with someone else, they could ‘join the party’ by eavesdropping in on your most intimate details, or joining the conversation.

Today, when somebody listens in on your phone call, there’s a whole new legal meaning associated with it. Now, unless the government has a warrant, it can’t eavesdrop on your phone calls.

At least that was the case until Sept. 11th came along.

Then President George W. Bush decided that it was O.K. to have a “terrorist surveillance program” to listen to conversations and open e-mails without first getting a judge to authorize a warrant.

When he was White House Counsel, Gonzales believed that this was a necessary legal Texas two-step dance around the Fourth Amendment and Supreme Court case law on searches and seizure.

Despite years of requests for more information about the program, the White House, Dick Cheney, and Department of Justice Lawyers haven’t been forthcoming about the legal rationale and due process considerations behind the decision to use warrantless wiretaps inside the U.S.

Now, the Senate Judiciary Committee concluded that its time to set things straight by issuing subpoenas for the DOJ, the White House, Cheney, and the National Security Council for documents about the surveillance program. Documents produced in response to the subpoenas are due on July 18, 2007.

This is bound it end up in federal court.

The results of today’s Senate vote on the no-confidence resolution co-sponsored by Senate Democrats are:

For the Resolution (’Yeahs’): 53

Against the Resolution (’Neahs’): 38

There was a length Senate debate on the resolution.

Noteworthy votes included:

Sen. Arlen Specter, the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, voted for the no-confidence resolution.

* Sen. Joseph Lieberman (Dem. - Conn.), voted against the resolution. He argued that the resolution was a waste of time, and defended his vote by saying that “[i]t is an expression of opposition to spending any more time on a resolution that will accomplish nothing, instead of going ahead with the next item of business, which is energy legislation.”

The U.S. Senate is now voting on the no-confidence resolution in U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Check back for the final tally.

The Democrat-led U.S. Senate will vote on the no-confidence resolution introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer (Dem. - N.Y.) and Sen. Diane Feinstein (Dem. - Calif.) today.

Although the resolution has no legal force, it’s a timely reminder that the Department of Justice remains in disarray and is stuck in a dysfunctional state unless and until the politcally motivated firing of career U.S. Attorneys is resolved.

Yesterday the White House press office said that Bush wasn’t concerned about the vote becuase it was “[p]urely a symbolic vote.”

What would resolving the U.S. Attorney firings debacle mean? That is the question.

DOJ Inspector General Glenn Fine is moving ahead on an in-house probe of the firings, but it seems very unlikely that he will probe his boss. He a had heated legal battle with Gonzales early last year that the Attorney General is not likely to forget.

It’s equally unlikely that Gonzales will resign. Like a Texas jack-rabbit, Gonzales has promised to “sprint to the finish line” of Bush’s term.