 Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., believes President Bush is acting more like a sovereign monarch than an elected leader by authorizing the National Security Agency to listen in on Americans' phone calls. "We have a system of law," Feingold said. "He just can't make up the law 
It would turn George Bush not into President George Bush, but King George Bush."
| If Bush hadn't been monitoring enemy communications, both into and out of the country — and within it — he'd be an idiot. And when we got attacked again, it would be people like Feingold who'd be screaming for his head for incompetence. |
The issue lies in the interpretation of the Afghanistan resolution passed by Congress following the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11. The eavesdropping issue came to the forefront when The New York Times reported Friday that the NSA has been listening to domestic phone calls to foreign countries since 2002. In a televised radio address Saturday, Bush said he has reauthorized the NSA's new powers over 30 times since 9/11, and "intend(s) to do so for as long as our nation faces a continuing threat from al Qaeda and related groups." The president, and members of his staff including Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and White House counsel Harriet Miers, reevaluate the spying every 45 days. Bush said the surveillance helps catch terrorists and is within the scope of his Constitutional powers.
| If you don't believe, or don't want to believe that there are terrs working in the country, then you can make lots of political hay out of that. If you've been paying any attention for the past four years you know the terrs are there. Only if you can't conceive of the terrs winning or — and this is what I think is probably the case — you think the fight can be put off until your party's the one in power in the Sweet By and By can you feel comfortable playing fast and loose with national security. I don't think goofs like Feingold take the War on Terror seriously because it's far, far away. The WTC bodies are cold and the attention span has long since run out. Pfeh. |
| Indeed, the only way the Dems reaction to this non-affair make any sense is if you assume they don't believe there is really a War on Terror. Their response, particularly people like Pelosi and Feingold, displays the usual liberal attitude: the WoT should be a law-enforcement affair only, with lawyers, prosecutors, and judges, all carefully circumscribed and careful. We wouldn't want to violate someone's civil rights, after all. The WoT is much more than simple law enforcement, of course, and that's one reason why you listen in on what the bad guys are doing. It's about stopping them BEFORE they strike, figuring out their chain of command and organizational chart, learning the players, and finding weaknesses you can exploit with new operations. Once you get that, you understand why the NSA wants to listen in. They don't get it. |
Since the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration, the executive branch's power has been significantly restrained, Bush administration officials say. It has been the mission of White House officials such as Vice President Dick Cheney to reassert executive power. Bush claims the eavesdropping was done with Congress's blessing. "Leaders in Congress have been briefed more than a dozen times on this authorization and the activities conducted under it," he said in Saturday's address.
| Which is what makes me consider this entire hoorah nothing but politix as usual, and politix at its smelliest. |
| According to the Risen article in the NYT on Friday, Sen. Rockefeller expressed 'concerns' at some point in one of these briefings early on. The response of the Bush administration? They temporarily suspended the program and adjusted some of the procedures. Ditto when the Foreign Intelligence Service Court Judge expressed concerns: procedures were re-worked. When DoJ career attorneys expressed concerns about linking NSA intel to criminal prosecution, the AG stepped in and ensured that proper procedures were followed. That doesn't sound like a runaway operation, now does it? |
Nonetheless, ABC News chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos sees the controversy shaping up as a "full-scale political war."
| Which is, of course, much more important than the war on the turbans. |
| "War on the Turbans" has a nice ring to it, dontcha think? Gets right to the point. |
Democratic leaders like Representative Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., have sent letters to the president to protest the eavesdropping revelation, Stephanopoulos said. | Rockefeller is a full-fledged hypocrite: he is on the Senate Intel Committee. He knew about this from day one. The Risen article notes his previous concerns. If he thought this was illegal, why didn't he say so? |
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