There’s a wave of outrage rolling across the lefty blogs right now regarding the NY TImes article reporting that for the last three years, President Bush has allowed government agencies to spy on Americans despite explicit laws against it. Honestly, as outrageous and disgusting as that behavior is, I can’t find it in me to be angry about the whole thing. There have been so many outrages the past few years, and undoubtedly so many more to come, that it’s really hard for me to get upset about any given one of them anymore. Call it “Bush Fatigue”.
I AM unhappy about this. I’m disgusted that Bush thinks it’s OK to ignore our laws and treat the Constitution like just a piece of paper. If you don’t like a law, call your buddies in Congress get the law changed. It’s not like Bush was having difficulty getting Congress to do what he wanted three years ago when this all started. (Which is NOT to say that spying on innocent Americans is OK, I’m just pointing out what a leader who cares about rule of law should do.)
But the bottom line is, I’m not surrpised by any of this. Seriously, you folks who are ranting and raving and calling for his impeachment — is this at all a surprise? Or are you just surprised that it took so long for the news to come out?
And despite Arlen Spector’s claims that his committee will hold investigations into these acts next year, somehow I suspect that by the time everyone gets back to Washington after the holidays, this will be old news and we’ll just merrily roll along until the next time.
The inimitable Digby, as always, has taken outrage and turned it into art. If you’re pissed off and havent read this post yet, it’s worth a read. Here’s a sampler:
Look, the problem here, again, is not one of just spying on Americans, as repulsively totalitarian as that is. It’s that the administration adopted John Yoo’s theory of presidential infallibility. But, of course, it wasn’t really John Yoo’s theory at all; it was Dick Cheney’s muse, Richard Nixon who said, “when the President does it, that means it’s not illegal.”
Generally I think Digby’s quite right about this. But one piece of the puzzle is missing here, and that’s the fact that GW Bush is a recovering alcoholic. I think he has replaced the high he used to get from alcohol with the high of power. I truly believe he’s become drunk on power, and since he is an addict, over time he needs ever-increasing doses to get the same high. Which might shed some light on why Bush didn’t simply lobby to have the laws changed. Having to ask Congress to authorize these acts would lessen the sense of power he gets from ordering them.
I can’t imagine that this can continue for three more years. But anyone who seriously thinks a Republican-dominated Congress is going to bring articles of impeachment against Bush is not thinking rationally. It was nice to see that a few Republican senators were not willing to vote to continue the Patriot Act, but that’s a far cry from thinking they’ll impeach Bush.
And on that downer note, I’m going to brew a pot of coffee and try to cheer myself up.
