Town Hall Meeting with Senator Shelby

This evening I had the chance to listen to our senior senator. The meeting was held at an old high school gym that is being turned into a drug rehabilitation center for women. Sen. Shelby helped bring in some money to get the center started. Here is a brief synopsis: The Senator kicked the meeting off with a promise to vote "Yea" for Sam Alito. He also reiterated his support for judges such as Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts. He brought up the examples of Souter, Stevens, and Kennedy who were appointed to the bench by Republican presidents and then the justices took a hard left turn. Shelby seemed confident that these two judges were not going to follow that same path, that they would interpret the Constitution as it is written.

The meat of the Q&A concerned national security. I agree with him that terrorism, espically from Muslim extremists is going to be a 100yr battle. The Middle East has been the center of conflict in the world for thousands of years. Shelby remarked that he has visited every country in the M.E. except for Iran. The State Dept. said it was too dangerous for him but his wife was allowed to travel there. He stressed the need for us to finish the job militarily and then get out on our own timetable.

When asked about the wiretapping controversy, Shelby pulled out a copy of the Constitution from his inside jacket pocket. He turned to the Fourth Amendment to the part where it says that we are protected from "unreasonable searches and seizures", not all searches and seizures. He then acknowledged that even though Congress can hold hearings it will probably take a Supreme Court decision to resolve the matter, particularly in an election year. Shelby, a former member of the Intelligence Comm., treaded lightly around this subject. Shelby accidentally leaked classified information concerning the 9/11 attacks. Last November, the Senate Ethics Committee dismissed its probe into the alleged leak of classified information regarding National Security Agency intercepts.