Desperate Measures

MANIFESTO

Jonathan Alter at Newsweek reports about the Boy King's desperate attempt to stop the Times from exposing his shredding of the Constitution. On December 6th, BK held a meeting with Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and executive editor Bill Keller in the Oval Office "in a futile attempt to talk them out of running the story." Sure would love to have been a fly on that wall.

The problem was not that the disclosures would compromise national security, as Bush claimed at his press conference...(he) was desperate to keep the Times from running this important story —which the paper had already inexplicably held for a year—because he knew that it would reveal him as a law-breaker.

Like most big political scandals (and this one is going to be waaaaaay bigger than Plamegate), Snoopgate should never have happened. The court that issues the warrants the White House was required by law to obtain is designed to respond almost instantly to government requests.

(It can approve) eavesdropping in hours, even minutes, if necessary. In fact, the law allows the government to eavesdrop on its own, then retroactively justify it to the court, essentially obtaining a warrant after the fact. Since 1979, the FISA court has approved tens of thousands of eavesdropping requests and rejected only four. There was no indication the existing system was slow —as the president seemed to claim in his press conference —or in any way required extra-constitutional action.

The retroactive thing is what gets me. If there really were a "ticking-bomb" scenario like BK implies, this part of the law is designed to be a contigency. Instead, the White House just ignored it. In 27 years, only four requests have been denied. Four. This law is practically a rubber stamp. Why did BK authorize a secret program that was wholly unnecessary?

As I said before, almost all major political scandals needn't to ever have happened. Nixon was a fool to break into the DNC because he was going to trounce McGovern anyway. Clinton shouldn't have lied to the Grand Jury because the American people would have forgiven his adultery. The Boy King should have just followed the FISA laws since they already gave him all the power he needed to investigate terrorist ties. Each of these Presidents made colossal errors in judgment and will always be haunted by them. I'd say I hope BK gets thrown out of office like Tricky Dick but then we'd be left with the guy who probably thought up the whole evil thing up in the first place.