Michael Arcuri: The Law Enforcer

During his speech in Lansing a couple weeks ago, congressional candidate Michael Arcuri made it clear that he'll position himself as the legal eagle of the Democratic primary race. As Oneida County's District Attorney, it is Arcuri's job to prosecute people accused of breaking the law. He promised to do the same in Congress, saying of President Bush's program to illegally wiretap Americans citizens' telephone calls and read their emails without a search warrant:

"This President is not really following the rule of law. Congressional hearings are going to be important. My real concern is this: Hearings are great, but there need to be more than just hearings. There need to be decisions made. Congress needs to assert its legislative power. They made the law. They made it clear. The President is not enforcing it. That's one of the things, shame on Congress, they need to be doing more. I think, if we had a Democratic majority, we'll see that that will be something we see more of."

Good for Michael Arcuri for taking a stand for congressional action against warrantless wiretapping that goes beyond mere hearings. The hearing organized by the Republican Congress in which Alberto Gonzales was allowed to testify without being legally sworn to tell the truth was a sham. Les Roberts has suggested that he, like Michael Arcuri, would support strong congressional action to bring the Bush White House back under the control of the rule of law. These statements are a good start, but each candidate needs to communicate a more full explanation of the path they believe that Congress should take to deal with the abuse of the law by the Bush Administration.