[Mb-civic] A Discredit to the GOP - Washington Post Editorial

[William Swiggard]

A Discredit to the GOP

Friday, January 27, 2006; A22

THE BUSH administration's distortion, for political purposes, of the 
Democratic position on warrantless surveillance is loathsome. Despite 
the best efforts of Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff, 
and Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman, to make it 
seem otherwise, Democrats are not opposed to vigorous, effective 
surveillance that could uncover terrorist activity. Nor are the concerns 
that they are expressing unique to their party. Republican Sens. John 
McCain (Ariz.), Arlen Specter (Pa.), Chuck Hagel (Neb.), Lindsey O. 
Graham (S.C.) and Sam Brownback (Kan.) have expressed legal doubts about 
the surveillance program. Do they, too, have a "pre-9/11 worldview," as 
Mr. Rove said of the Democrats?

Believing there should be constraints on unchecked executive power is 
not the same as being weak-kneed about the war against terrorism. 
Critics are suggesting that President Bush should have gone through 
normal procedures for conducting such surveillance or asked Congress to 
provide clear legal authority for the National Security Agency activity. 
They are not contending that such surveillance shouldn't be conducted at 
all. No leading Democrat has argued for barring this kind of potentially 
useful technique.

But you wouldn't know that to listen to the GOP spin. "Let me be as 
clear as I can be -- President Bush believes if al Qaeda is calling 
somebody in America, it is in our national security interest to know who 
they're calling and why," Mr. Rove said at the Republican National 
Committee winter meeting last week. "Some important Democrats clearly 
disagree." Mr. Mehlman named names. "Do Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean 
really think that when the NSA is listening in on terrorists planning 
attacks on America, they need to hang up when those terrorists dial 
their sleeper cells inside the United States?" he asked.

Maybe, as a matter of crass political calculation, Mr. Rove and Mr. 
Mehlman are correct that Democrats criticizing warrantless wiretaps will 
pay a price in the November elections. We don't pretend to know. What we 
do know is that the country is in the midst of an important debate about 
the reach of presidential power and the scope of civil liberties in 
wartime. For Rove & Co. to try to turn this into just another partisan 
political skewer discredits their administration and their party.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/26/AR2006012601903.html?nav=hcmodule
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