Hagel: Bush Can't Unilaterally Go Around FISA

by Steve

Well, so much for that Rovian storyline. Chuck Hagel became the latest major GOP figure to come out today and doubt whether the president has the authority to spy without warrants. He joins Arlen Specter, Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and Sam Brownback in sharing that position. Hagel said on ABC’s "This Week" just now that Bush doesn’t have the unilateral authority to decide that FISA is out of date and violate that law. Crooks and Liars has the video. So much for the talking points Karl, you felon. And Hagel took a shot at Rove to, for politicizing the war against terror.

On top of this, Newsweek breaks the story this morning that there were numerous lawyers inside the administration, who have fought Bush, Cheney, and David Addington and John Yoo over how much power the president has since 9/11. Most of these lawyers have left the government now, but they all had one thing in common, aside from being conservatives: they thought that the claims by Cheney, Addington (now Cheney’s chief of staff since Scooter left), and Yoo were bogus. And it appears that John Ashcroft agreed with them, even on the issue of whether or not Bush had the authority to conduct surveillance of Americans without a warrant post 9/11. The NSA spying mess was just one issue where these conservative lawyers thought the administration was going too far in its claims of unimpeded executive authority.

Hat tip to Crooks and Liars, and ThinkProgress