Monday, January 23, 2006

This is not about Dick Nixon

From today's Washington Post:

Especially without knowing the parameters of the surveillance, we hesitate to second-guess the president's argument that FISA's limits are unduly constraining. The surveillance may be critical for national security, and a law written in a different technological age may well need to be refurbished. But the proper way to handle that -- which the administration rejected -- would have been to seek changes in the law, not to do a stealthy end run around the legislative process. In such an amorphous, long-running conflict as the war against terrorism, it's critical to ensure that limits are in place to prevent the executive branch from overreaching.

This is the core issue. Does the president have the right to circumvent the law in order to "protect" us from terrorists? Any poll question asked should be phrased exactly like this.

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