GOP Chairman Walks Out of Meeting on PATRIOT Act

WashPost:

WASHINGTON -- The Republican chairman walked off with the gavel, leaving Democrats shouting into turned-off microphones at a raucous hearing Friday on the Patriot Act.

The House Judiciary Committee hearing, with the two sides accusing each other of being irresponsible and undemocratic, came as President Bush was urging Congress to renew those sections of the post-Sept. 11 counterterrorism law set to expire in September.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the panel, abruptly gaveled the meeting to an end and walked out, followed by other Republicans. Sensenbrenner declared that much of the testimony, which veered into debate over the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, was irrelevant.

Wondering why a meeting goes into a debate over Gitmo? Well take a look at who was there:

Democrats asked for the hearing, the 11th the committee has held on the act since April, saying past hearings had been too slanted toward witnesses who supported the law. The four witnesses were from groups, including Amnesty International USA and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, that have questioned the constitutionality of some aspects of the act, which allows law enforcement greater authority to investigate suspected terrorists.

Democrats ask for the meeting about the PATRIOT Act and they bring Amnesty International with them?

What did the Republicans (spelling edited-MJ) think that was going to happen? Amnesty International hates Gitmo, wants it closed (or wants Bush sent there, because you know, there aren't any real terrorists there), and wants known terrorists freed!

Amnesty International is going over the edge faster then the Democratic Party. If the Dem's hope to get their good name back they have to break ties with these kinds of people.