Senior Administration Official Guessing Game: DoJ Disses Senate Judiciary
Today's item involves "a senior Justice Department official," quoted in Eric Lichtblau's New York Times article, Senate Panel Rebuffed on Documents on U.S. Spying . Lichtblau writes:
Several Democrats and at least one Republican have pressed the Justice Department in recent days to give them access, even in a closed setting, to the internal documents that formed the legal foundation of the surveillance program. But when asked whether the classified legal opinions would be made available to Congress,a senior Justice Department officialsaid Wednesday, "I don't think they're coming out."
The official said the administration's legal arguments had already been aired, most prominently in a 42-page "white paper" issued last month. "Everything that's in those memos was in the white paper," said the official, who, like other administration and Congressional officials, was granted anonymity because classified material was involved.
Okay, these quotes aren't particularly controversial; this is not the stuff Deep Throats are made of. But we don't have anything better to do with our time -- and neither do you, since you're reading this. So send us your guesses by email .
Also, for the record -- because accuracy is our middle name here at Wonkette -- please see this correction to the results from our last installment of the Guessing Game, concerning the affiliation of Elisebeth Collins Cook.
Finally, one of you was kind enough to give us a guess on the second item from our last Guessing Game :
About the line from 'a staff member for another Democratic senator,' my money is on Danny O'Brien, Joe Biden's COS. Why? There is just something about the statement that smacks of the sort of begrudgingly applied political pragmatism that staffers to presidential hopefuls slather themselves with. QED.
Earlier: Senior Administration Official Guessing Game: The Alito Nomination Players