Glenn Greenwald: McCain, spying and executive power: A complete reversal in 6 months

[babylonsister]

Glenn Greenwald
Tuesday June 3, 2008 06:31 EDT
McCain, spying and executive power: A complete reversal in 6 months

(updated below)


Last December, as his campaign was floundering, John McCain responded to a questionnaire on executive power, spying and torture that was distributed to all candidates by The Boston Globe's Charlie Savage. McCain explicitly refused to answer whether he thought there was "any executive power the Bush administration has claimed or exercised that . . . is unconstitutional." But on one critical issue -- whether he thinks the President possesses "inherent powers" under Article II "to conduct surveillance for national security purposes without judicial warrants, regardless of federal statutes" -- McCain gave an answer that was basically the equivalent of the ACLU/Russ-Feingold/Chris-Dodd view, and completely at odds with the Bush/Cheney/Yoo view of executive power. McCain answered:

There are some areas where the statutes don't apply, such as in the surveillance of overseas communications. Where they do apply, however, I think that presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, no matter what the situation is.

Savage followed that up with a related question and McCain was just as clear:

Globe: Okay, so is that a no, in other words, federal statute trumps inherent power in that case, warrantless surveillance?

McCain: I don't think the president has the right to disobey any law.

That view as stated by McCain is the diametric opposite of the Bush administration's view, which asserts that the President has the power under Article II to spy on Americans without warrants even in the face of a law that criminalizes such warrantless spying (FISA). Just to underscore how radical McCain's December answer was for today's Republican Party, the answer McCain gave on that question was identical to the one given by Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Ron Paul, and Barack Obama, but it was glaringly at odds with the evasive one given by Mitt Romney ("Our most basic civil liberty is the right to be kept alive") and Rudy Giuliani ("the president has certain core constitutional responsibilities to ensure that our nation can defend itself and our fundamental liberties in times of emergency").

But that was December. Now that McCain is desperate to shore up the support of right-wing extremists, he just gave the exact opposite answer yesterday. Over the last couple weeks, a controversy arose among right-wing executive power fanatics because a McCain representative said at a campaign event that McCain opposes telecom amnesty in the absence of probing hearings and an apology from the telecoms -- a reversal of McCain's January vote for full telecom amnesty without those conditions. That was followed by a Washington Post article containing quotes from a McCain spokesman suggesting that McCain's support for telecom amnesty was now less than absolute.

more...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/03/mccain/

[Hydra]

1. No real surprise

He is now the anointed candidate- if he wants to stay that way and not drop out due to "health problems" he'll toe Bushco's line...not unlike his cave-in over the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

[babylonsister]

2. Thus the name 'weathervane mccain'. nt

[Hydra]

3. Politicians as weathervanes seem to be in fashion

I was listening to NPR about the Gay Marriage issue in California, and one political hack was discussing Gavin Newsom's "risky gamble" on Gay Marriage...

Since when is following the law a "risky gamble"?

[Supersedeas]

4. nothing to see here -- the Media has a Free Ride Express to deliver that Corp Advertisers demand