http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_013008/content/01125114.guest.html<snip>
RUSH: The opposition in the Senate is primarily from Democrats, correct?
CHENEY: Correct. People who don't want to -- I guess want to leave open the possibility that the trial lawyers can go after a big company that may have helped. Those companies helped specifically at our request, and they've done yeoman duty for the country, and this is the so-called terrorist surveillance program, one of the things it was called earlier. It's just absolutely essential to know who in the United States is talking to Al-Qaeda. It's a program that's been very well managed. We haven't violated anybody's civil liberties. It's in fact a good piece of legislation.
RUSH: Yeah, it's amazing that it's a political issue. I want to ask you, is the Democrats' opposition to this oriented toward, you know, payback for a big constituency of theirs, the trial lawyers, is it purely political and trying to damage George W. Bush because of their pent up resentment of his success, or is it something else? There's a story, I forget where it is, I just finished reading it. It's at Politico.com. It said that with Rudy Giuliani's defeat last night, that the politics of 9/11 are finished, they're over, that nobody is going to succeed running on 9/11 and thus the continued threat. Is this really part of an effort by some in the Senate to try to convince the American people, we don't face a threat anymore, and there's no reason to run the risk of violating people's civil liberties blah, blah, blah?
CHENEY: Right. Well, it's been focused especially on the Democrats and the Senate Judiciary Committee. Pat Leahy, chairman of the committee, has opposed parts of the statute that we think are essential in terms of going forward, including specifically this retroactive liability provision. I don't like to question people's motives. I assume he's got reasons why he believes the way he does, but the fact is their inability to resolve that issue that's delayed passage on this legislation. I think there are people out there frankly, Rush, that don't like what we've done, that are opposed to the bold action, tough decision the president's made since 9/11. I think there were a lot of people who were panicky in the aftermath of 9/11, but now that we've demonstrated our ability to defend the country for the last six-and-a-half years, they want to act as though there's no threat and we don't need to take these important measures. But the fact of the matter is the threat's still there, it still exists. I look at it every day in our intelligence brief. We need to perpetuate and protect our capabilities here as well as in terms of our ability to interrogate prisoners.
:crazy: