Hinchey Makes a Move

Remember this?

Meanwhile, the Justice Department has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the NSA refused to grant its lawyers the necessary security clearance.

The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, or OPR, sent a fax to Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., on Wednesday saying they were closing their inquiry because without clearance their lawyers cannot examine Justice lawyers’ role in the program.

Well, Rep. Hinchey was having none of it—and he’s introduced a measure which would compel the Bush administration to reveal who blocked the Justice Department’s inquiry.

"The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility is designed to ensure that the highest ethical standards are met by those who enforce our laws. For administration officials to deny OPR officials security clearances needed to do their job and conduct the proper oversight is absurd and is contradictory to what the American people expect and deserve from their government," Hinchey said. "The Bush administration cannot get away with designing a secret, illegal spy program and then shutting down an investigation into its creation and implementation. Since the Attorney General and others have refused to be forthcoming in a genuine way on their own, this resolution of inquiry will force them to pull back the curtain of secrecy and reveal who stopped the OPR investigation and why."

Right on, Hinchey. Go get ’em.

(Hat tip C&L.)