Spies and Lies: The Case for Impeaching Bush

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Spies and Lies: The Case for Impeaching Bush

By Lawrence Albright

The Bush Administration Goes to War on the Constitution

While it may be fashionable to trace the Bush administration’s animosity to constitutional constraints on its power to the tragic events on September 11, 2001 there were harbingers of things to come even before that infamous date.

The 2000 elections, which saw Bush’s highly questionable victory over then Vice President Al Gore, revealed the utter contempt of the Republican Party machinery toward the Constitution. In Florida, the term “pregnant chad” entered the language as part and parcel of a disenfranchisement of voters throughout the state who, according to demographics, were solidly inclined to vote for Gore. This process was aided and abetted by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, now serving in the House of Representatives for Florida’s 13th district. Similar issues occurred elsewhere (and in Ohio during the 2004 election).

In one of those ironies that would be amusing if it weren’t so frightening, the Supreme Court effectively decided Bush’s 2000 victory, a first in the history of the Supreme Court and the nation. In view of the Bush administration and the ultra-right’s hostility toward the judiciary, one is tempted to wonder how they reconcile their philosophical and political positions with the gift they were given by the court five years ago.

To use one of Bush’s favorite expressions, make no mistake, September 11, 2001 merely provided the ultra-right with the pretext they needed to pursue their ultimate agenda: the consolidation of an unprecedented degree of power along with efforts to marginalize their opposition by portraying them as either unpatriotic or fools.

Toward this end, the Bush administration and its allies steamrollered Congress into the passage of the USA Patriot Act. In addition to its other provisions, the USA Patriot Act also amended the FISA. It increased the number of judges serving on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and allowed roving or multi-point surveillance under FISA. Access to business records was substantially amended along with the following very significant change in the statute: Where prior to the passage of the USA Patriot Act, an agent seeking an order from the FISC would have to certify that obtaining foreign intelligence information was the sole purpose of the surveillance, under the current, amended, rules the agent has to certify only that foreign intelligence is a “significant purpose” of the surveillance.

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/2874/1/154/