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The Hardball Briefing On MSNBC
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President Bush is on a media tear. In the last week, he's delivered two major
speeches, an unusually live weekly radio address, a primetime televised Oval
Office address to the nation, and, today, an East Room press conference with
the full White House press corps. Amid roaring questions about the White
House's use of domestic surveillance in the wake of 9/11, the president met the
press this morning and said, "What is needed in order to protect the American
people is the ability to move quickly to detect. Now, having suggested this
idea, I then, obviously, went to the question, is it legal to do so? I am...I
swore to uphold the laws. Do I have the legal authority to do this? And the
answer is, absolutely. As I mentioned in my remarks, the legal authority is
derived from the Constitution, as well as the authorization of force by the
United States Congress." Here's the full transcript of today's presidential
presser: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/12/20051219-2.html.
On Hardball tonight, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who's also on a media
tear, will sit down with NBC's Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea
Mitchell, who's sitting in for Chris this week, to discuss the spying debate,
the president's remarks, and the situation in Iraq. You have to see it!
Despite the president's assertions, Democrats are expressing outrage. Sen.
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) will join Andrea tonight to react to the president's
statements from today and Sunday night. In a statement, Feinstein said, "I sit
on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees. Based on that service, I have
had, until now, great confidence that America's intelligence activities, at
home and abroad, were conducted in accordance with the law. Today's allegations
call into question whether this is in fact true."
By the way, in case you missed it, here's what the president said Sunday night
in primetime: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/12/20051218-2.html.
At the center of this debate is the use of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act. If you have time for it, your Hardball team recommends a very
comprehensive resource on that law pulled together by the Federation of
American Scientists here: http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/.
Also on the show tonight, the Wall Street Journal's John Harwood and the
Washington Times' Tony Blankley will join Andrea to discuss the spying story,
the war, ramped-up rhetoric over renewing the Patriot Act, and changes in the
president's style and substance in the last week. You will learn something for
certain.
Here are some things you might not have read yet today:
--NBC recaps today's East Room event http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10530417/
--AP reports on Sunday night's Oval Office remarks
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10522435/
--AP's Ron Fournier analyzes a shift in presidential rhetoric
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10524952/
--Newsweek's Howard Fineman looks at 2008 from the Old Dominion
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10509653/site/newsweek/
--Hardblogger War Council member Jack Jacobs reflects on the Iraqi election
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10284912/#051216b
--NBC's First Read (incomparable!) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3626796/
--Doonesbury http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html
Brooke Brower compiled the "Hardball Briefing" in Washington, D.C.
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