Here we go again

May 2, 2007

It was too good to be true. In mid January, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales apparently backed down from a year of wrangling over warrantless domestic searches. After arguing incessantly that the surveillance program was absolutely necessary, had to be kept separate from FISA, and could not be altered under any circumstances, Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the administration was relenting — the program would, from now on, be subjected to oversight.

Yesterday, the White House followed on January’s decision with a different message: “Never mind.”

Senior Bush administration officials told Congress on Tuesday that they could not pledge that the administration would continue to seek warrants from a secret court for a domestic wiretapping program, as it agreed to do in January.

Rather, they argued that the president had the constitutional authority to decide for himself whether to conduct surveillance without warrants.

I get the sense that the president, with his back against the wall, has decided to play the let’s-see-what-I-can-get-away-with game. It’s almost as if Bush is saying, “Congress won’t impeach me, my approval rating is in the 20s, my presidency is already a failure, so why not go for broke?”

In January, Gonzales assured lawmakers, in writing, that the NSA’s domestic spying program has been brought under the legal structure laid out in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The president would not act unilaterally; FISA judges would serve as a check against abuse of power.

But Michael McConnell, the new director of national intelligence, said senior officials believed that the president still had the authority under Article II to conduct domestic surveillance without warrants.

During a hearing Tuesday of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mr. McConnell was asked by Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, whether he could promise that the administration would no longer sidestep the court when seeking warrants.

“Sir, the president’s authority under Article II is in the Constitution,” Mr. McConnell said. “So if the president chose to exercise Article II authority, that would be the president’s call.”

The administration had earlier argued that both the president’s inherent executive powers under Article II of the Constitution, as well as the September 2001 Congressional authorization to use military force against Al Qaeda, provided him with the power to conduct surveillance without warrants.

We thought we’d moved past this scandal. It’s about to come back.

May 2, 2007 at 11:36 am

Tell me again… why in’t this grounds for impeachment?

Ms Pelosi needs to be asked directly what her duties are when the executive branch blatantly violates the constitution. What exactly would Bush have to do to be impeached?

How many more days until these squatters leave the WH?

Change of topic:
Great news and hooray for oversight (and how about another Bush appointee unqualified to do the job AND with a political agenda. How surprised are we? Not at all):

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/05/01/interior_official_quits_ahead_of_hearing/

An Interior Department official accused of pressuring government scientists to make their research fit her policy goals has resigned.

Julie MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, submitted her resignation letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, a department spokesman said Tuesday.

MacDonald resigned a week before a House congressional oversight committee was to hold a hearing on accusations that she violated the Endangered Species Act, censored science and mistreated staff of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service…

MacDonald, a civil engineer with no formal training in natural sciences, had served in her post since 2004. She was a senior adviser in the department for two years before that.
—————————

Go and read the rest.

Consider the timing: the president vetoed the Iraq funding bill yesterday and was meeting with Democrats today to discuss a compromise. With this, he seems to be telling Congress to screw themselves, he’ll fight them on every front until the end of his term.

Congress will have to decide what to do about it.

The original FISA revelations were what prompted me to put the “Impeach Bush” sticker on my car bumper. I never believed them when they said they’d back down, and I’m certain this illegal surveillance continues and will continue until another executive branch stops it.

I’ve long thought it’ll come down to impeachment, whether Reid and Pelosi want it to or not.

One of the things Bush does very well is appear to relent when a media storm starts to build. Then, once he lets the steam out and the bloggers/media/Dems move on to something else, Bush goes right back to doing what he always has: ignoring laws and convention to consolidate power.

Until the promise oversight actually occurs, assume it’s a as much of a lie as his promises of a drawdown of troops after the election, or compromised with the Dems or Iraq funding. Until oversight actually occurs otherwise, it’s just a stalling tactic.

I read that Congressional Democrats are still waiting for the legal arguments for the warrantless wiretapping that were requested long ago. Why is Gonezales’ office still being funded? If Congress lets these criminals blow them off forever (I’m looking at you, Rockefeller) then they are useless.

Time to set some more benchmarks with consequences.

These people are relentless, like the monster in a horror movie that isn’t dead till you drive a stake through its heart, sever its head and burn the body. All of which would be good things to do to the Republicans.

Short of impeachment–which whould be viscerally satisfying to me, but a political non-starter with most of the country, I think–Congress should sue to enjoin the President from wiretapping outside the FISA strictures. Assuming standing is granted, this will get the issue before the courts and provide a clear answer to the legal question of whether the President has powers under Article II that trump the strictures of the Bill of Rights. I cannot imagine even the current Supreme Court siding with the White House on this egregious point. (But, who knows?)

After all the little ReThug children in Congress fell in line behind “Das Veto,” Bu$h knows that there will always be 33 ReThug Senators—and 1 Darth LIEberman—to vote against conviction on impeachment articles.

What was that about Sowell a couple of topics ago? Something about “rescuing the nation via a military coup?” That’s probably the only way the People will ever get these heinous cockroaches out of the WH—by bringing in the tanks

If Congress asked whether the public wanted a president impeached or not every time it was under consideration, we’d never stop all the oversexed interns from getting some.

Non-starter, my eye.
Cowardice. Darn shame Kucinich had to get so creative about things, taking on Cheney instead. He comes across as flaky instead of gutsy.

I see it differently – why give away something for free when it can be used as a bargaining chip in political horse trading? It’s playing hard ball – you do something not because it’s “right” but because you can exact a price for it on something else. The Bushies are very good at it – let’s hope that the Dems get up to speed pretty quickly.

You definitely want to go read Glenn Greenwald today and his dissection of the right’s belief in the unitary executive and the right of the President to break the law to save the law.

His conclusion (as usual) is excellent:

While the Bush administration expressly adopts these theories to detain American citizens without charges, engage in domestic surveillance on Americans in clear violation of the laws we enacted to limit that power, and asserts a general right to disregard laws which interfere with the President’s will, our media still barely discusses those issues.

They write about John Edwards’ haircut and John Kerry’s windsurfing and which political consultant has whispered what gossip to them about some painfully petty matter, but the extraordinary fact that our nation’s dominant political movement is openly advocating the most radical theories of tyranny — that “liberties are dangerous and law does not apply” — is barely noticed by our most prestigious and self-loving national journalists. Merely to take note of that failure is to demonstrate how profoundly dysfunctional our political press is.

To view this in any light other than that of watching a 6 year-old throw a tantrum at the market because his mom won’t buy the Coco Puffs is to overly complicate things. This is a spoiled child venting because we’uns don’t love him and want to play his way.

If congress manages to rein him in (I doubt they have the guts) he’ll probably “SHOW THEM” by nuking Iran . . .

Do NOT pre-suppose that intelligence, maturity or common sense exist in this man.

It’s not as if he *needs* to wiretap without FISA’s permission; it’s that he *wants* to. This, from yesterday’s Think Progress:

2176 — Number of secret warrants approved by the FISA court targeting people in the United States in 2006, a record high. The secret court “approved all but one of the government’s requests.” May 1, 2007 8:01 pm

I agree with Kucinich. Impeach Cheney first as a shot across Bush’s bow. The people won’t go for a Presidential impeachment again, and if we do get the will to do it, won’t that leave Cheney in charge?

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