Bush Illegal Wiretapping Claims a Hero
30 January 2006 3:40 pm by Taylor Marsh
Bush Illegal Wiretapping Claims a Hero
… These Justice Department lawyers, backed
by their intrepid boss Comey, had stood up to the hard-liners, centered in the
office of the vice president, who wanted to give the president virtually unlimited
powers in the war on terror. Demanding that the White House stop using
what they saw as farfetched rationales for riding rough-shod over the law and
the Constitution, Goldsmith and the others fought to bring government spying
and interrogation methods within the law. They did so at their peril;
ostracized, some were denied promotions, while others left for more comfortable
climes in private law firms and academia. Some went so far as to line up private
lawyers in 2004, anticipating that the president's eavesdropping program would
draw scrutiny from Congress, if not prosecutors. These government attorneys
did not always succeed, but their efforts went a long way toward vindicating
the principle of a nation of laws and not men. … NEWSWEEK
Nothing explains the situation we face over George W. Bush's presidential
overreach more than the Newsweek article above. Egged on by the agenda of Vice
President Dick Cheney and others who believe in a "unitary executive,"
President Bush has ignored and abused the advice of career legal professionals
to the point of pressuring the heroes among them to resign. Pretty soon, all
we'll have left is all the president's people, which is fitting since tomorrow
George W. Bush will give his SOTU speech with approval ratings lower than any
other modern president but one, Richard M. Nixon. The damage is far from
over.
