What Did You Think Would Happen?

IN the political haze following 9/11, back when the Republican noise machine was grinding out the first bars of its "you're with us or against us" waltz, Democrats ran around like Hollywood pool boys trying to get discovered. So fearful of appearing out of step with the Bold Leadership TM of the Bush administration that they crowded around the neocons' bellicose, nationalist dominionism.

So it's hard to watch those Democrats who so willingly gave away their powers to the President now cry foul when the President cites their surrender as the source of his extralegal powers.
NYT: "President Bush and two of his most senior aides argued Monday that the highly classified program to spy on suspected members of terrorist groups in the United States grew out of the president's constitutional authority and a 2001 Congressional resolution that authorized him to use all necessary force against those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks."

Bush is, of course, pulling his legal defense strategy right out of Alberto Gonzales' tortured ass, but Bush's tendencies to consolidate power and avoid oversight were already evident by the time the Republican drum beating and the Democrats' prostration resulted in the 2001 resolution. Just as they later shoved each other aside in a fevered rush to sign the 2002 Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq, the Democrats were busily trying to be like the President. They wanted to be seen as manly. They wanted to be seen as bold. They wanted to be seen as common men with an abiding faith in Jeebus.

This is from Scrutiny Hooligans ~~ well worth reading the whole thing. Do it!