CSM: Congress is partly to blame for Bush's spying (yes, GOP members)

[ProSense]

Congress is partly to blame for Bush's warrantless wiretaps By Pat M. Holt
Thu Jan 5, 3:00 AM ET



WASHINGTON - Congress is in an uproar over the Bush administration's use of warrantless wiretaps in the United States against American citizens. And well it might be. But to find the culprit, Congress has only to look in a mirror. The sad truth is that Congress does not want to exercise effective oversight of intelligence activities.

President Bush, for his part, says Congress implicitly authorized eavesdropping and other searches without a warrant when it authorized the president to respond to 9/11. The president has also asserted his inherent power under the Constitution to wiretap without congressional authorization, either implied or explicit. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has admitted that the administration backed off seeking congressional authority because of advice from Capitol Hill that it would be too difficult to pass. So, if you don't think you can get it, say you don't need it.

Mr. Bush is not the first president to claim an inherent power in matters of national security. The last one before Bush was his immediate predecessor, Bill Clinton, who claimed it in connection with the sale of secrets by CIA employee Aldrich Ames. The issue is not political; it is institutional.

Snip...

The basic problem here is a fundamental disagreement over the constitutional powers of the president and Congress. Suppose Congress tells the president that it's OK to wiretap foreigners but not Americans without a warrant "particularly describing," as the Fourth Amendment puts it, "the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." And suppose the president then does it anyway. This leaves the country in a major constitutional crisis.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20060105/cm_csm/yholt05_1



Same old story, but the fact is the FISA law is clear, Daschle, Harmon, Rockefeller and the rest made it clear, and Bush broke the law anyway.

[Blutodog]

1. FISA

Bu$hCo's position is clear on the Law. He is the law.