McCain: I'd Spy on Americans Secretly, Too

[OhioChick]

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-o.html

[electropop]

1. He keeps writing Obama's ads for him.

How can he think this would win any votes? He's such an easy target.

[L. Coyote]

2. Soooo, if I get caught wiretapping the McCain campaign, I can just apologize!!

Cooooool.

[galledgoblin]

3. gawd, gramps watching me as I sleep

somehow McCain watching me manages to creep me out more than Bush/Cheney... Bush/Cheney anger me, but don't creep me out in the same way.