Domestic spying issue likely to dominate politics in 2006

BY DICK POLMAN
Knight Ridder Newspapers

PHILADELPHIA - One week into the new year, we are already mired in an acrimonious debate over whether George W. Bush - who vows to continue his warrantless domestic spying program - is crafting an imperial presidency unfettered by constitutional checks and balances or is restoring broad powers that he sees in the plain language in the Constitution ...

But you know that emotions must be running high when a constitutional lawyer says this: "President Bush presents a clear and present danger to the rule of law. ... Congress should insist the president cease the spying unless or until a proper statute is enacted, or face possible impeachment." Those are the words of conservative Bruce Fein, a deputy attorney general under Ronald Reagan, who contends that Bush has explicitly broken the 1978 federal law that requires that a president obtain warrants.

Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor and a frequent counsel in national security cases, argued Friday that, because of Bush's spying program, "we now have the most serious constitutional crisis that this country has faced in decades. A president cannot be allowed to become a law unto himself.

"I testified in Congress in support of Bill Clinton's impeachment, and I also thought he should have been convicted. At that time, my Republican friends insisted that the Clinton case was about the rule of law. Today I'm a bit surprised to see so many of them being so conspicuously silent. This president is misusing his office to order the continued commission of federal crimes. That is unique in the annals of impeachment" ...

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/nation/13579076.htm

By the way, did anyone see the story in the NY Times Style section today about the Chicago store owner who puts the political messages in her display window. It currently has "Stop Domestic Spying" in it. That woman rocks!

:yourock: