"I am as convinced as ever that the administration has the legal authority to do this," said Mr. Schumer, a New York Democrat.
added, "In the wake of serious breaches of trust by CIA leadership over the past year, it is more important than ever that the administration appoint a strong, independent CIA Inspector General".
Boxed in by a very short timetable that in effect ends with the American presidential election, it appears more unlikely than ever, they said, that the administration will be able to restore meaningful talks after the latest shattering of trust.
But underneath the numbers, and of course unobserved in the report, lies an exquisite irony: what has brought us here are the landmark environmental laws of the early 1970's -- laws that the industries bankrolling the Bush administration have been fighting tooth and nail ever since, laws that the administration itself has tried to amend or weaken.
We need to make sure we have good relationships with both main parties in the US so that what ever the administration, they respect our views and engage with the international community on pressing issues such as climate change.
Ever since the administration of Ronald Reagan, presidents have required federal regulators to demonstrate precisely that.
Has it ever occurred to the administration that unless we're invited to do so, we shouldn't be going around telling people what they should want?
Two of the clerks recall his saying that much of the work was dull but that some concerned matters "so awful, so terrible, so radioactive" he doubted that the administration would ever disclose it.
Shelly Nortz, deputy policy director for Coalition for the Homeless and a leading expert in Albany on housing for the mentally ill, called the plan "the biggest thing that the administration has ever done in the housing area".
"I never believed that the administration would ever, as a matter of principle, provide a light-water reactor," said Charles L. Pritchard, who negotiated with North Korea in President Bush's first term.
