Do I Detect a Pattern?

A report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service says that the wiretapping done under Bush’s domestic spying program may have been illegal, that his justification under executive power was “not well grounded in law,” and that “it appears unlikely that a court would hold that Congress has expressly or impliedly authorized the NSA electronic surveillance operations.”

Ultimately, however, the report said it was impossible to determine the legality of the taps without access to classified information surrounding the decision.

“Whether an NSA activity is permissible under the Fourth Amendment and the statutory scheme outlined above is impossible to determine without an understanding of the specific facts involved and the nature of the President’s authorization, which are for the most part classified,” it concluded.

This conclusion sounds very much like Fitzy’s explanation of why Scooter Libby was charged with obstruction rather than with any breach of specific federal law. The administration allegedly breaks the law, and then, through a combination of spin, dogged obfuscation, and claims ranging from executive privilege to an inability to declassify without risking national security, no investigatory body can actually get to the bottom of what really happened.

Quite a stunning little turn of irony for the man whose entire presidency (at least since September 11, 2001) has been based on “smokin’ out the evildoers” engaged in criminal activity including difficult-to-detect plots.