THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

The Washington Post, reporting on ODEL's press conference today, leads with Li'l Georgies claim of powers not elsewhere granted in the Constitution.

President Bush today offered his most elaborate defense yet of his administration's domestic eavesdropping program, saying he was legally and constitutionally authorized to implement it and obligated to do so in order to protect the country from a new kind of enemy.

In a wide-ranging news conference this morning, Bush said his authority to have the National Security Agency eavesdrop without judicial involvement derived from his inherent constitutional powers as commander in chief as well as from the authorization for the use of military force approved by Congress in the wake of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "Congress gave me authority," he said.

But probably most telling is the use of a totally specious reason for use of warrantless wiretaps.

Bush and Gonzales both argued that they resorted to the new eavesdropping program because wiretaps under FISA were too slow because of the judicial participation.

The law in question specifically allows for wiretaps to be placed if needed immediately, only requiring that a warrant be applied for within 72 hours of doing so. It strikes me that someone would have to be pretty damn incompetent to fail this hurdle. What is more troubling is that the secret FISA court has only refused a handful of warrants, which were later approved after reworking the requests. A point of interest is that these mulligans happened during the reign of King Georgie II. Maybe they are rightly worried about incompetence. And maybe Alberto "Electrodes" Gonzales is at the center of it. His use of unstated authorizations has to raise serious questions about his abilities to perform the actual requirements of his job.

FISA says that, "A person is guilty of an offense if he intentionally . . . engages in electronic surveillance under color of law except as authorized by statute." Congress did indeed authorize the newly disclosed eavesdropping by statute, said Gonzales, when it passed the 2001 resolution called "Authorization for the Use of Military Force."

The resolution does not mention eavesdropping or detention, which the administration has also said is supported by the authorization. It says, "The President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons."

It seems that our Attorney General views the law as so much Silly Putty, to be stretched to suit his master's purpose.

ADDENDUM: Perhaps Larry Johnson has a better reason for this Soviet style approach to the law.