George W. Bush is a man of his word

* glenn: "What the legislation does, on its face, is replace FISA judges with Republican Senators in approving the government's eavesdropping activities... But there is a far bigger and more important problem. Congress already enacted legislation regulating the Government's eavesdropping activities. They called that law FISA. The Administration has been violating that law because they believe they have the power to do so, because they think that Congress has no power to regulate or limit the President's eavesdropping activities. Since the White House still believes it has this power, isn't passing another law facially moronic, given that the Administration has already said that they are free to violate whatever Congressional laws they want which purport to regulate eavesdropping?"

* "Critics contend that the bill would allow the Bush administration to skirt the 45-day deadline by declaring that national security is at stake whenever a case is questioned. [The proposed] bill would not give the committee the authority to intervene, even in cases in which wiretapping appears to be unjustified.
" 'The White House could just decide not to tell them everything, and there's no sanction,' said Bruce Fein, a former Reagan administration lawyer who said he believes that the NSA program is illegal. 'And the president can still claim that he has inherent power to conduct surveillance.' "
(link)

* ""I am not ready to say we will take back the House and Senate,'' Dean said in an interview. "But we will take back the House and probably the Senate if we run a national campaign.'' If Democrats do gain control, he said, Republicans should expect to be investigated: "If we get subpoena power'' in congressional committees, "the corruption will come out on America's TV screens, and that scares the daylights out of the Republicans.'' he said." (link)
yeehaw

* froomkin: "(Cheney) also made this dubitable assertion: "Ladies and gentlemen, one of the basic truths of the world we live in today is that George W. Bush is a man of his word."" (link)