Yesterday, the New York Times published this editorial on the current debate over updating FISA. It calls for President Bush to finally join that debate, instead of merely offering "propaganda intended to scare Americans, expand his powers, and erode civil liberties." It also praises the House for passing the FISA bill that Rep. Reyes and I authored, which "preserves constitutional protections against unreasonable searches" and denies retroactive immunity for the telecom companies.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives took several historic steps towards protecting our system of checks and balances.  First, by a vote of 223 to 32, the House passed resolutions referring criminal contempt citations for former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, as well as authorizing civil actions against them should the Justice Department refuse to prosecute.  Second, we did not succumb to the White House political pressure concerning the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

There are two links I want to bring to your attention this morning. The first is the Washington Post story about Sen. Obama's victories in Maryland, Virginia and DC in yesterday's primaries.

We're hitting the ground running at the Judiciary Committee this first week back in session. As the AP reported yesterday, I was joined by 18 other Committee Democrats on a letter to the Attorney General requesting that he appoint a special counsel to investigate the CIA's destruction of interrogation tapes. An independent investigator is critical to a fair and thorough handling of this case.