<<Bush did call on leaders of both parties, and requested a ruling from
whitehouse attourneys on the legality of this before proceeding, It has , of
course, not been determined he did anything at all wrong here, or that
Presidential
powers in time of war do not allow this, so to state this as a violation is
incorrect.>>
Bush failed to go to the only authority that could make his actions legal:
the courts. Bruce Fein, who is a conservative's conservative, discussed
domestic surveillance on C-Span the other day. It's quite an educational
discussion: http://www.c-span.org/Search/basic.asp?ResultStart=1&ResultCount=10&BasicQue
ryText=Bruce+Fein+ (first video in the list).
I've been reading a lot about Lincoln and the Civil War lately (inspired, I
guess, by the wonderful new A. Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in
Springfield). The issue of presidential powers in a time of war were a very
big issue at the time, particularly after Lincoln set aside habeas corpus.
We could all probably do a lot more reading and listening and a lot less
spouting off so that we truly understand the issues.