State of Belief Celebrates One-Year Anniversary

Washington, D.C. – On this Sunday’s “State of Belief,” The Interfaith Alliance Foundation’s show on Air America Radio, Reverend Welton Gaddy celebrates the show’s one-year anniversary.  To mark the occasion, Rev. Gaddy is joined by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  In his second appearance on the show, Leahy outlines his agenda for the committee.

Rev. Gaddy asks Senator Leahy whether the change in control of Congress will affect the makeup of the federal judiciary.  “I don’t want the federal judiciary to be an arm of either the Democratic or the Republican Party,” Leahy replies.  “If we start allowing it to become politicized, to say nominees have to fit a certain ideology, we will destroy that independence.”

Senator Leahy talks about plans for an oversight hearing with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales next week.  The focus of the hearing will be on privacy issues, especially in relation to the NSA wiretapping program.  If Gonzales refuses to answer key questions about the program, Senator Leahy says he is prepared to issue subpoenas as a last resort. “Americans are giving up the thing we’ve always prized – our privacy – and I don’t think this is making us safer,” says Leahy.

State of Belief heralds its anniversary with congratulatory messages from fellow Air America personalities Al Franken, Mike Papantonio and Rachel Maddow.  Former State of Belief producer Isaac Aronson takes over the show to ask Rev. Gaddy what he has learned over the past year.  Rev. Gaddy also visits with one of his guests from show number one, Professor Diana Eck of Harvard University, to find out what has changed for Muslim Americans in the past year.