Feingold on warrantless wiretapping

Today, Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold issued a scathing rebuke of the Bush administration, Congress, and--if I can read between the lines--Joe Liebermann. Here's how it began:

Again and again, he invoked the principle of freedom, and how it can transform nations, and empower people around the world.

But, almost in the same breath, the President openly acknowledged that he has ordered the government to spy on Americans, on American soil, without the warrants required by law.

The President issued a call to spread freedom throughout the world, and then he admitted that he has deprived Americans of one of their most basic freedoms under the Fourth Amendment -- to be free from unjustified government intrusion.

The President was blunt. He said that he had authorized the NSA’s domestic spying program, and he made a number of misleading arguments to defend himself. His words got rousing applause from Republicans, and even some Democrats.

The President was blunt, so I will be blunt: This program is breaking the law, and this President is breaking the law. Not only that, he is misleading the American people in his efforts to justify this program.

How is that worthy of applause?

Read the entire speech.

Waffle: Bush's main defense of warrantless spying on US citizens, used in the State of the Union, is that had such powers been open to him, the 9/11 attacks could've been prevented. Funny, in 2002, Bush (along with Ashcroft and FBI chief Robert Muller) said there's no way the attacks could've been protected.