Adviser Says McCain Backs Bush Wiretaps

[sabra]

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON — A top adviser to Senator John McCain says Mr. McCain believes that President Bush’s program of wiretapping without warrants was lawful, a position that appears to bring him into closer alignment with the sweeping theories of executive authority pushed by the Bush administration legal team.

In a letter posted online by National Review this week, the adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said Mr. McCain believed that the Constitution gave Mr. Bush the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor Americans’ international phone calls and e-mail without warrants, despite a 1978 federal statute that required court oversight of surveillance.

Mr. McCain believes that “neither the administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions that most people, except for the A.C.L.U. and trial lawyers, understand were constitutional and appropriate in the wake of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001,” Mr. Holtz-Eakin wrote.

And if Mr. McCain is elected president, Mr. Holtz-Eakin added, he would do everything he could to prevent terrorist attacks, “including asking the telecoms for appropriate assistance to collect intelligence against foreign threats to the United States as authorized by Article II of the Constitution.”



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/us/politics/06mccain....

[maseman]

1. That's fine

Keep alining yourself with Shrub's fallicies. Gives Obama a nice argument that the old fart is all about the government spying on its own people. I thought the right was about small government and staying out of our lives?

[Art_from_Ark]

4. Well, Obama supported the so-called "Patriot" Act

so I don't think he's too uncomfortable with warrentless wiretapping.

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/r...

[Divine Discontent]

2. K&R, thanks Sabra...

to me, this is YET another strong argument against MCSAME!!!


New Obama/Anti-McSame Items!
www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable

[Mojambo]

3. Bob Barr just picked up a shitload more voters from McCain. n/t

[Supersedeas]

11. we'll see how far Barr takes it

[OhioChick]

5. Yep.

McCain: I'd Spy on Americans Secretly, Too

June 03, 2008 | 5:06:25 PM

If elected president, Senator John McCain would reserve the right to run his own warrantless wiretapping program against Americans, based on the theory that the president's wartime powers trump federal criminal statutes and court oversight, according to a statement released by his campaign Monday.

McCain's new tack towards the Bush administration's theory of executive power comes some 10 days after a McCain surrogate stated, incorrectly it seems, that the senator wanted hearings into telecom companies' cooperation with President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program, before he'd support giving those companies retroactive legal immunity.

As first reported by Threat Level, Chuck Fish, a full-time lawyer for the McCain campaign, also said McCain wanted stricter rules on how the nation's telecoms work with U.S. spy agencies, and expected those companies to apologize for any lawbreaking before winning amnesty.

But Monday, McCain adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin, speaking for the campaign, disavowed those statements, and for the first time cast McCain's views on warrantless wiretapping as identical to Bush's.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/06/mccain-id-spy-...

[texpatriot2004]

6. More proof that he is McSame after *'s third term. nm

[autorank]

7. Good grief - they're making Bob Barr viable overnight n/t k*r

[Jefferson23]

8. No surprise here from McAsshole, but this is what I hope from Obama.

That he will speak about the serious violations this brings and that there is absolutely NO good reason to go forward with this without a warrant..NONE. When hearings took place on this issue there was a lame attempt to suggest that there were so many warrants that it would prove to be counterproductive in the "war on terror." Obama should not be concerned about looking weak on terror..he should be able to make McAsshole answer what reason we should bypass a FISA warrant.

[bdamomma]

9. "My friends"

I am still going to spy on you illegally.

[OneAngryDemocrat]

10. Here's the link to the actual article...

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGUxZDA1YWJkMj...

Please visit my amateur (but I try!) anti-war blog, www.shockedandawful.com

See you all in St Paul!!!