Wiretap Tales

Coverage Type: 

WIRETAP TALES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey's Senate testimony earlier this week revealed that nothing illegal was done, he was never threatened by White House officials, and the President told him to do what he felt was right. The Gonzales-Card hospital intrusion was unusual, and politically unwise, but their motive at the time was to gain approval for a program the President thought vital to national security and was about to expire. What's really going on here is a different form of political theater: Democrats are trying to whip up an aura of "illegality" to create the political leverage to strip a Republican President of his surveillance authority in wartime. They've tried to do this since the program was revealed, and back in 2006 Russ Feingold compared it to Watergate. But unfortunately for the Democrats, wiretapping aimed at America's terrorist enemies is politically popular. So, rather than arguing the legal merits, Democrats are spinning a yarn about shady deeds perpetrated in a hospital room at night. They are using half-truths to achieve a partisan goal that is dangerous policy, and they shouldn't get away with it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117936562630505722.html?mod=todays_us_op...
(requires subscription)

* The Gonzales Coverup
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/16/AR200705...


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117936562630505722.html?mod=todays_us_opinion