Trusting and Verifying

Just as a little pre-emptive in case anyone claims Sen. Ron Wyden didn’t say “Trust but verify” about the Bush administration; here are some examples of his previous usage of the phrase.

From the Corvallis Gazette-Times, 23 February 2006:

Throughout the evening, Wyden discussed the difficult task of balancing national security issues with civil liberties and the necessity of giving the nation’s executive branch flexibility in fighting terrorism, while demanding accountability.

To drive the point home, he quoted Ronald Reagan: “Trust but verify.” And he assured his audience of roughly 60 that “It is possible to fight terrorists ferociously without throwing our civil liberties in the trash can.”

From Wonkette‘s liveblogging of the confirmation hearings for CIA chief Michael Hayden, 18 May 2006 (posts are in their original bottom to top order):

12:02 — Wyden misquotes Reagan’s “trust but verify” line. We think he’s a good person to be the dick to Hayden because it’s hard to think of him as a partisan firebrand showboating Schumer type, as he clearly is about to start crying.

11:59 — Ron Wyden — He’s the best we’re gonna get for contentious question, but the problem is, he’s 12 years old. Ron Wyden — Boy Senator! To be played by little Ronnie Howard! Ron Wyden — castigating the entire Bush Administration for breaking the law, but sounding like he’s Linus explaining the true meaning of Christmas.

From an AP story at the First Amendment Center, 29 April 2005:

“We’re to some extent doing oversight in the dark,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. “I operate under the Ronald Reagan theory: trust but verify. What I do know is we haven’t gotten the report that is supposed to be filed.”

From the Senator’s news release on a hearing with then-DNI John Negroponte and Hayden (who was NSA chief at the time), 2 February 2006:

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) questioned Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte and NSA Chief General Michael Hayden at a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence today on issues of domestic surveillance and terrorist threats worldwide. In today’s hearing, Wyden said that the right position on NSA wiretapping should be to say “trust, but verify,” allowing Congress the opportunity to do effective oversight to verify citizens are being adequately protected.

WYDEN: Mr. Director, that answer isn’t good enough for me. That answer is essentially: “Trust us. The Congress and the public just have to trust us.”

And Ronald Reagan put it very well. He said, “Trust, but verify.”

And we have no way to verify that citizens are being protected the way you have outlined today.

Of course, Ronald Reagan was the guy whose administration was selling arms to the Iranians to raise funds for the contras in Central America to circumvent the Boland Amendment that Congress passed to prevent the US government from giving money to the contras, so I’m not exactly sure why Wyden (and any number of other Democrats) want to use Reagan’s words to give the impression that they’re on the ball, vigilance-wise. Perhaps they could come up with their own original and untainted philosophy some day.

Here’s a little A. Whitney Brown from the day.

The Big Picture with A. Whitney Brown

More about that here.