Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Not only does Bush defend the administration’s program of unwarranted domestic spying — illegal domestic spying — he actually manages to sound angry and upset at the people who called him on it. He labels the release of the information to the press a “shameful act” — although he didn’t see the need to do the same when his and Dick Cheney’s top aides were outing CIA operatives a few months back.
Bush insists that an open debate on this would give comfort and support to the enemy. But here’s the thing: you don’t have to tell the press or the American people who you’re investigating, upon whom you’re spying. You don’t have to tell us the specifics. You just have to operating legally. There has to be some level of oversight, an adherence to the law under which your actions must fall. And in this case there wasn’t. Just because Bush says he has the legal authority to do something, that doesn’t make it so.
How — how — is this man still President?