"But we can't worry about the Constitution's fine print during war.'(Dowd)

Snippets from:

The Squires of Surveillance

By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: December 21, 2005

Dick and Rummy are holed up in the den of Rummy's Chesapeake Bay retreat, Mount Misery, pawing through sheafs of transcripts of wiretapped telephone conversations, hunting for inside dope.


Dick interrupts, "More torture."

"Some pansies are making unwarranted claims that we should have gotten warrants," Rummy continues. "But we can't worry about the Constitution's fine print during war. Besides, it's fun to secretly blow off the super-secret court. Sure, warrants would have been no problem - the court has turned down only five government requests since 1979. Why the dickens shouldn't we go in and eavesdrop on whoever we want? Who says we can't do sneak and peak searches whenever we dadburn please?

"Junior can try to model himself after Reagan, but you can't beat our old boss Nixon when it came to channeling paranoia in a productive way. Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover had it right: dark times call for dark measures. We're thinking too small, really. Let's sic the I.R.S. on Murtha, McCain and Feingold. Let's bug Condi and Lieberman - those back-stabbing sons-of-guns want our jobs. Condi has no clue who she's dealing with, right, Dick? I perfected the black art of infighting before Condi was born. And while we're at it, let's tap Risen's phone. His story in The Times about our wiretaps was an outrageous invasion of our privacy and an assault on our monarchy's - I mean, our executive branch's absolute power. We'll smoke out the rat who leaked that story."

Dick takes a sip of Scotch and nods. "More snooping," he says.
nyt article is select
http://select.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/opinion/21dowd.html?hp

I have a feeling the courts will look dimly on their shenanigans. I'd say that these bozos knew that would happen and that's why they are mad at the Times for breaking the story. I just hope they don't find out who told, because that anonymous person appears to be the only check on executive power we've had for a while.

If only.

How great would it be if one morning we woke up to a procession of whistle blowers marching toward OUR White House with documentation in hand.

Well...maybe they'd be wiser to march toward the NYT. lol

That way we wouldn't waste our time with teasers. It pisses me off to only tread four paras. And don't tell me to spend the Fifty dollars!

and I won't shell out fifty bucks either.