Taking Fire

It was a tense hearing this morning for Solomon Watson, the administration's nominee to be general counsel for the Army. A trifecta of Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee tore into him repeatedly for his role as then-general counsel for The New York Times when the paper ran a story revealing a controversial, warrantless surveillance program run by the National Security Agency and authorized by former President George W. Bush.

Watson stressed the decision to run the story in late 2005 was made by the newspaper's publisher, not himself. Watson said his deputy worked on a legal evaluation of the article before publication, which found that running the story would not be illegal. Watson became aware of the story after its publication, he said.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) argued Watson should have worked actively to prevent the story's publication because it contained classified national security information. At the time, White House officials vigorously denounced the article, saying it had brought to light a counterterrorism program that needed to remain secret.

Having Watson oversee all Army legal issues would be like "putting the fox in charge of guarding the hen house," Sessions opined. Watson, in turn, vowed to aggressively pursue leakers of classified information throughout the service if senators confirmed him.

Despite his concerns, Sessions does not have a hold on Watson's nomination "at this time," a spokesman for the senator told us this afternoon. We're still awaiting word from Republican critics Sens. John McCain (AZ) and Saxby Chambliss (GA) concerning a potential hold.