Bloodless Coup

Retroactive Warrants

I presume we all know this by now, but since we are all in a big Bush/FISA fit let's lay it out in its own post to make it entirely clear - the argument that the president had to act illegally so that he wouldn't have to wait on the FISA courts to issue a warrant is a big, gigantic, bald-faced lie. A wiretap can be put through immediately. All that's required is that you go to a judge for approval of it in the next three days. That's it. You are not slowing down the gathering of vital intelligence by acting within the law. So, again, this notion that the president had to act illegally because of a short time constraint is a big, gigantic, bald-faced lie. As Ezra notes:

I want to say this very clearly as it is absolutely the heart of the issue: there is no possible circumstance under which FISA would slow Bush's ability to respond. None. Any emergency can be handled instantaneously, with all oversight conducted retroactively. Add in that the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Courts have denied a total of three applications out of around 20,000 and you get a sense of how deliberately non-invasive this law is. FISA does nothing but ensure Bush doesn't use the NSA improperly. Nothing.

The president could have both followed the constitution and defended the country. He simply chose not to.