Cheney's Lackluster Defense

The Press called Dick Cheney's defense of Bush's domestic espionage program "vigorous". I suppose I can go along with that if volume and bluster are the criteria by which a vigorous defense is judged. It would fit: Bush's mantra for years has been if you repeat an untruth often enough it becomes true. Cheney's pro-espionage rant was not a defense. A defense would have explained why it was necessary to bypass the FISE court, an organization with a mandate to approve requests, or why they couldn't produce enough evidence to warrant the wiretaps in the 72 hours they can use without any approval at all. The FISE court has approved all but six requests since its formation, the irony of which is that the majority of the six rejects belong to the Bush administration. Also the majority of the court's modifications to espionage plans belong to the Shrub's nascent KGB.

The only defense Cheney offered was the old, tired, 9/11. If you repeat it often enough it becomes true, right, George? Given the FISE court's record of rubber-stamping wiretap requests, the only possible defense of bypassing it would be an assumption that a member of the court was compromised. I've yet to hear that hypothesis offered. All this leads to one conclusion: The administration wanted to grab power to do as it wants. That, my friends, is not checks and balances. It's a budding dictatorship.

Following 9/11 we through Congress gave Mr. Bush near carte blanche to run the war on terror as he saw fit (although that authorization did not include waging the war on terror within the U. S.). He and his gang of cabinet thugs have proven themselves unworthy of the power alloted a dog catcher, much less a "wartime" administration. We must now count on Congress to rein the Shrub and his gang in. That means putting rational controls on the Patriot Act and, I'm sorry, leave my library card alone unless you have probable cause to search it.

The sad thing about the lastest misstep of the Bush administration is that it was unnecessary. Everything they wanted to do could have been done legally. The president saw this as an opportunity to seize power from Congress, to do literally whatever he wanted and grabbed at the opportunity. In Cheney's lackluster defense, he accused opponents of the program of downplaying the threat terrorists posed. What actually is happening? Congress is taking back power foolishly granted to fools and would-be dictators.