Monday, February 06, 2006

But It IS Legal! *Giggle Giggle*

posted by Will

What does Attorney General Alberto Gonzales think is so funny? He's talking about spying on Americans without authority and the most stark assertion of Executive power in recent memory, and it looks like he can hardly keep himself from giggling.

"The Enemy is listening", he says. So, therefore we shouldn't even discuss whether the program is illegal or ask questions about it? This is the most blatant instance in this administration's long history of arrogance. Their claim is exactly this absurd: that what the Executive is doing is legal because the Executive says it is. (Not to mention the audacity of AG Gonzales telling Senators that they gave the President the authority to do all this, even though none of them, apparently, think they did.) This is the essence of the kind of overreaching that checks and balances were put into the Constitution to prevent. AG Gonzales needs a refresher course in ninth-grade Civics.

Here's to Senators Specter and DeWine for showing some backbone and preventing this from becoming a party-line Kabuki dance. Whatever the eventual solution to the Intelligence problems at hand (assuming the administration allows a proper debate), it is of vital importance that the Constitutional issues be taken very seriously. They are, at least a bit, and at least so far, willing to demand more than the rest of their fellow Republican yes-men on the Judiciary Committee.

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