It's A Slam-Dunk!

This comes courtesy of the Washington Post. Italicized passages are my comments.

Bush Confident Warrantless Wiretaps Legal
By TERENCE HUNT
The Associated Press
Thursday, January 26, 2006; 11:11 AM

WASHINGTON -- President Bush defended anew his program of warrantless surveillance Thursday, saying "there's no doubt in my mind it is legal." He suggested that he might resist congressional efforts to change it.
Sure, why not? It's not like anyone in the Congress or the Supreme Court would dare stop you, Your Incompetent Highness.
"The program's legal, it's designed to protect civil liberties, and it's necessary," Bush told a White House news conference.
About as much protection as the "Patriot Act?"
Democrats have accused the president of breaking the law in allowing eavesdropping on overseas communications to and from U.S. residents, and even some members of his own party have questioned the practice.
Asked if he would support efforts in Congress to give him express authority to continue the program, Bush cited what he said was the extreme delicacy of the operation.
"It's so sensitive that if information gets out about how the program works, it will help the enemy," Bush said. "Why tell the enemy what we're doing?"
As if the 'enemy' doesn't already know what we're doing.
"We'll listen to ideas. If the attempt to write law is likely to expose the nature of the program, I'll resist it," the president said.
"Listen to ideas?" That'll be an innovation for this Administration.

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Some enterprising fellow has dug back into the archives and found an interesting bit of trivia - way back in 2002, a Republican Senator proposed a change to the FISA law which would have made warrantless wiretapping much easier (under FISA, as you recall, the Prez can order a warrantless wiretap for 72 hours before taking a request for warrant to the FISA court - which doesn't reject many requests).

Bush rejected the idea.

And now we have found that Bush has gone far, far beyond even what Senator DeWine had proposed. The reason that Bush rejected the DeWine proposal? Because it would probably be unconstitutional.

One might almost weep at the irony.

And Bush's constant assertions that his illegal activities are legal are starting to ring hollow. Yes, he's absolutely sure - but he was also absolutely sure about the Iraqi WMDs, and that our troops would be welcomed with candy and flowers, and that we would catch Osama, and so on and so on and so on and so on and so on ...