Bush's Counterterror Proposals Could Be a Hard Sell--( But don't worry) [View All]

[lindashaw]

Rove is on the case!

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 President Bush (news - web sites), seeking still greater powers to fight terrorism, appears to have calculated that the renewed memories of the Sept. 11 attacks evoked by their second anniversary will be enough to outweigh rising concerns over civil liberties.

In the last several months, Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) proposed making more terrorism-related crimes eligible for the death penalty and making it more difficult for suspects to be released on bail, two critical components of the new initiative. But rather than using Mr. Ashcroft, a polarizing figure, to unveil the proposals, the White House decided to have Mr. Bush personally announce the plan on the eve of the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and at an early stage of the presidential campaign.

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Even Republicans with deep-seated concerns about expanding the government's counterterrorism authority said the timing made it difficult for them to speak out today without appearing insensitive to the memory of those killed on Sept. 11 and disloyal to President Bush.

"This is the president talking and not John Ashcroft," said a Republican Congressional aide, "and the fact is that we have to be as supportive as we can of the president and his efforts to combat terrorism."

Didn't I say he was good!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=3&u=/ap/20030911/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq