OVERSIGHT, "CHECKS & BALANCES" AND CENSURING BUSH

I got a chance to watch some of the CENSURE HEARINGS tonight on C-SPAN - you know the hearings that FEINGOLD forced on us, and in which he called JOHN DEAN of Watergate INFAMY - (who by the way is hardly an unbiased witness: he wrote a book calling for the impeachment of Bush BEFORE the NSA stuff became public!).

Here's the GIST of the whole dang "NSA-Censure" controversy:

Lefties like Feingold - (and even some LIBERALS LIKE SPECTOR) - think that the president should NOT have "gone around" the FISA Court for his "NSA International Terrorist Intercept Program." They believe this because they think that the way Bush did it was WITHOUT enough CHECKS & BALANCES or OVERSIGHT; they think that the FISA process is more of a CHECK on presidential authority.

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY FALSE. Here's why:

The FISA process requires that the POTUS (through his AG) need ONLY get approval from ONE SINGLE SOLITARY APPOINTED JUDGE IN TOTAL SECRET, and this only has to be renewed every 90 days.

The process which Bush used for this program entails informing EIGHT (8!) ELECTED CONGRESSMEN IN BOTH HOUSES EVERY 45 DAYS!

This means that by ANY LOGICAL MEASURE, the specific way that Bush has authorized the NSA to go about their interceptions means the program actually has MORE CHECK & BALANCES than if he had been using the FISA process!

I REPEAT:

FISA process = secretly telling ONE (1) appointed judge every NINETY (90) days.

Bush told EIGHT (8) ELECTED Congressman every FOPRTY-FIVE (45) days.

By my reckoning, the way Bush went about it SIXTEEN (16) times MORE OVERSIGHT than if he had used the regular old vanilla FISA process - (which is, BTW, a process he has used MORE than any other president - PROVING he is not shy about using it when he thinks it's correct to do so).

The people who assert that "KING GEORGE", er um Bush, "usurped" UNCHECKED secret powers under the cloak of "national security" argue as if the program was unchecked (which is NOT true - it has MORE checks!), and as if we were NOT at war (not true - we are!), and as if the POTUS was NOT the Commander-in-Chief (he is!).

They are Leftists & Liberal poseurs, partisan hacks, and demagogues trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. They should be TOTALLY ignored on this issue. MORE HERE AND HERE. And more here, too. And here.