John Kerry Calls for Independent Counsel to Investigate Bush Warrentless Wiretaps

John Kerry was on "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos, this morning. He spoke against Bush's warrantless wiretaps, calling them "a clear violation of the law."

Kerry said "that the administration has made no effort to consult Congress about any possible alteration to the law that he says restricts the wiretaps — the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA," and called for a special counsel and independent investigation into the matter.

In the interview John Kerry announced his intent to vote against Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. when the vote goes to the Senate floor this week. Kerry missed most of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings during an overseas tour of India, Pakistan, Iraq and Kuwait. He told Stephanopoulos that Alito would take the country "backwards."

When asked about "outside criticism that his Democratic colleagues may have focused on relatively inconsequential issues during the hearings," Kerry said, "That is certainly the criticism I have heard."

The discussion moved on to Osama bin Laden and Kerry repeated his belief that "the White House failed to commit the proper resources to capture Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora in Afghanistan." He also chastised Karl Rove for "continuing to make the war on terror a priority political issue" in his recent speech to fire up the GOP base for the 2006 elections.

Speaking of the Bush administration's efforts in the war on terror and the failure to capture Osama bin Laden, Kerry said, "Osama Bin Laden is going to die of kidney failure before he's killed by Karl Rove and his crowd."

MORE