When it comes to the defense of liberty under the reign of George W. Bush, U.S. Representative Jane Harman has had a record that swings back and forth.

Harman voted for the original Patriot Act without reading it, and then voted to expand George W. Bush’s spying powers in the renewal of the Patriot Act.

However, Representative Harman voted against the Military Commissions Act, which revoked habeas corpus and enabled torture under George W. Bush to continue. Harman also voted against H.R. 418, a law that gives the Secretary of Homeland Security the power to nullify any law within certain areas of the United States.

Then there’s Jane Harman’s curious record on George W. Bush’s warrantless spying program. In 2007, she voted against the Protect America Act, a law which legalized warrantless wiretapping. But, then in 2008, Harman voted for the FISA Amendments Act, which expanded the spying abuses of the Protect America Act and gave retroactive legal immunity to giant telecommunications corporations like AT&T.

Why this curious pattern of supporting the cause of liberty on some occasions, and then ignoring it on other occasions?

We don’t know the answer, of course, but the question takes on added significance given the allegations currently being made that Harman offered political favors to an agent of the Israeli government over the telephone, in return for efforts by that Israeli agent to acquire a position within the Democratic Party leadership, through AIPAC, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.

These allegations are mind-blowing in their implications. Apparently, that telephone conversation was recorded by a wiretap by the National Security Agency, whose warrantless wiretapping program Harman voted against in 2007, and then in favor of in 2008. Also, it is alleged that then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales agreed agreed to call off an investigation targeting Harman in exchange for her involvement in the effort to push the New York Times to keep a story about the the warrantless wiretapping of the Bush Administration unpublished.

Is it a coincidence that the release of the alleged transcript of Representative Harman’s wiretapped phone conversation with an Israeli agent comes just after it has been revealed that the NSA wiretapping program targeted large numbers of Americans within the USA, who don’t have any conceivable link to terrorism? Is Harman the member of Congress who was reported to have been targeted by the NSA as a target for warrantless spying, or was another member of Congress wiretapped as well?

It beats me. There are so many angles to this story that it’s impossible to make a solid guess at what’s really going on. I certainly don’t want to judge Representative Harman guilty before she has a day in court – that’s what the kangaroo courts set up under George W. Bush do. However, I think that we all deserve to see a thorough congressional investigation into the matter – an investigation into collusion between the New York Times and and Harman to keep an important story secret from the American people, an investigation into AIPAC and the government of Israel’s coordinated efforts to control the U.S. government, an investigation into the Democratic Party’s cooperation in those efforts, a full and unfettered investigation into the Bush Administration’s warrantless wiretapping, an investigation of the activities to telecommunications corporations in that spying, an investigation of the blackmail of Harman by Alberto Gonzales, an investigation into the passage of the FISA Amendments Act and the Protect America Act – including an investigation into the sudden, rather curious reversal of then-Senator Barack Obama into supporting Bush’s warrantless wiretapping, and an investigation of the continued warrantless wiretapping going on today.

Yes, that’s a lot of investigation. That’s because it looks like the corruption connected to the warrantless wiretapping Total Information Awareness spy system runs throughout the centers of power in the United States – including the former and current presidency, the Congress, private communications giants, lobbying firms, and our nation’s most powerful newspaper.

And that’s just what we know now. I think it’s time that we know the truth behind the rather erratic recent behavior of members of Congress, and that doesn’t just include Jane Harman.