McCain Supports Bush's Warrantless Wiretaps

The New York Times reports today on how John McCain has flipped his position on warrantless wiretapping to look very similar to George Bush's. Below are a couple paragraphs from the article that reflect how John McCain has flip-flopped toward Bush:

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...

...But Mr. McCain had previously stopped short of endorsing the view that Mr. Bush's program of surveillance without warrants was lawful all along because a president's wartime powers can trump statutory limits.

Andrew C. McCarthy, a National Review columnist who has defended the administration's legal theories, wrote that Mr. Holtz-Eakin's statement "implicitly shows Senator McCain's thinking has changed as time has gone on and he has educated himself on this issue."

And Glenn Greenwald, a Salon columnist and critic of the Bush administration's legal claims, wrote that the statement was a "complete reversal" by Mr. McCain, accusing the candidate of seeking "to shore up the support of right-wing extremists."

Comments

[josephjsalas]

It's like this. They use these spy gadgets to keep tabs on Americans who wish to re-instate
the Constitution. Plain and Simple! There's nothing you can do to stop them. But here's theflip side to the coin. Once they use it on you, and you find out about it (and of course your not a Muslamic-
jihadic-extremic-bolimic terrorist on a flying carpet)....the experience is now your intellectual
property (of sorts). AND YOU CAN SHARE IT WITH ANYONE!

Besides, the true terrorists are getting together in Europe this week.

[Shecki]

It's all a talent search for "Terrorist Idol."

[DrDemon]

This is why we say:

---> McCain = Bush Term III.

[totaldisbelief]

Take America back!!!!

[SCG]

from receivership.

[dhinds]

Part I:

For John McCain (and many voters), the race will be about National Security and "winning" the War in Iraq, based on his role as a highly respected War Hero (even Barack refers to McCain in these terms), a title Barack Obama himself can't claim.

I question the foundations of that assumption, and I question it on the basis of my own experience during (and understanding of) the Vietnam War (a war called the War of Resistance Against America, in Vietnam).

On October 26, 1967 John McCain "was flying his twenty-third bombing mission over North Vietnam when his A-4E Skyhawk" [an American Attack Aircraft] "was shot down by a missile over Hanoi" (Wikipedia).

The USA's military intervention in Viet Nam was justified by the since discredited Domino Theory, which predicted a chain of communist-led takeovers of governments in the region if South Vietnam's puppet government fell to North Vietnam. As we all know, those fears proved to be historically invalid.

I too was asked to participate in that conflict, and presented myself at the Army Induction Center in Phoenix AZ for examination as ordered (the Draft -obligatory military service- was still in effect).

I was aware that Vietnam represented no threat to the security of the United States of America. I was also sure that I could be of greater service to my country (as well as the rest of humanity) by continuing the work and research I was already performing.

To be continued:

[indypete]

"....To be continued:..."

Well, where is it? It was just getting interesting! Love the line, "I too was asked to participate in that conflict"... tactfully put!

[dhinds]

I posted it a while ago. HuffPo's blogs are having problems with the increase in traffic. I sent them the following:

Posts are taking far too long to show and many never do.

I suggest:

1.- Create a White List and Black List across all blogs.

2).- Let posts appear, then edit out unsuitable posts, adding offenders to the Black List.

3.- Allow larger posts politico.comm allows 900 words).

I would also prefer the Daily Brief in plain rather than html text.

[dhinds]

It's # 18 at:

http://dyn.politico.com/members/forums/thread.cfm?catid=1&subcatid=2&threadid=868445&start=1¤tPage=1

[nirek]

No surprises here.

[demoisedrawings]

This is not surprising at all that McCain has flip flopped on the wiretapping issue. The only consistency he displays is his switching stances on subjects such as how long our troops should be left in Iraq, for one example. I think as Ron Paul said it, political parties are secondary to an honest candidate. Although McCain's service to our country should be appreciated, it doesn't mean that it translates into his continued ideas foreign interventionism. And though intervention doesn't warrant what happened on 911, our president and policy makers could have done a way better job of going after bin laden.

[bigdaddyvike]

Did, Johnny, dig. Against torture, now for it. For campaign finance reform, now against it. Against domestic spying, now for it. Shia-Shiite-Queda/Shiite/Queda-Shia. The way he's going he may carry- say- 28% of the vote? Hope Cindy's ready to take over when he snoozes through the afternoon like ol' Dutch Reagan!

[kfdan]

"John McCain has flipped his position on warrantless wiretapping ... "
Ol'John McCain is a flip-flopper and has sold his soul to the devil. As for getting the country back on track or for that matter back into form as a Constitutional government, McCain will just NOT do! The last thing this country needs is another Bush in power following the same march to dictatorship!

[ProfessorDuh]

Machiavelli wrote that politicians must always lie and break their promises as necessary while pretending to be moral and religious.
"But it is necessary to disguise this character well, and to be a great feigner and dissembler; and men are so simple and so ready to obey present necessities that one who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived," he wrote.
Hence John McCain. Hence Dick Cheney. Hence Karl Rove. Hence Fox News and its audience and, for that matter, the trolls here.
But not Bush, of course. He couldn't even pronounce the name "Machiavelli."

[jpcline004]

He thinks Machiavelli was pitching prospect from when he owned the Rangers

[MrKINOKO]

"Laura, dear...summon the White House Chef...I want to eat a plate of this Machiavelli stuff. I love Indian food !! "

[indypete]

He thinks it's something a Chinese politician would say... "I'll Machiavelli glad you voted for me!"

Sorry... sometimes I just can't stop myself before it's too late!

[EGNY]

Americans have short memories. Consider the public figures who screw up so, at the time, you think they’re toast -- but they’re soon back as if nothing happened. Marv Alb*rt. Don Im*s (I didn’t say GOOD public figures) Bill M*hr (I didn‘t say I agreed unequivocally about the screw-up, either).

My point: Neither side of the Cl*nton/Ob*ma argument has to nurse a grudge for long. And well we shouldn’t!

Let’s remember who the REAL enemy is, here.

The enemy is the guy who wants to give a virtual third term to a fascist administration that lied us into an unnecessary war; that speaks patriotism but shreds the Constitution and practices war profiteering; that says "support the troops" but won’t equip them or take proper care of them when they come home.

The enemy is the guy hugging a president who had the gall to say he’d "restore honor and dignity" to the White House, and then turned it into a criminal enterprise.

The enemy is the guy who’ll see Roe overturned, and ordinary Americans die waiting for their insurance company to approve treatment.

Next to all that, the fighting between the Cl*nton & Ob*ma “camps” is nothing but a little dust-up among family.

Play time’s over, gang.

The Repugs have shown they’re perfectly happy to steal an election if they can get away with it. So QUIT SCR*WING AROUND with this infighting and get focused on the real enemy!

[SCG]

Breaking News!

McCain supports the Louisiana purchase....details to come later.

[aceholiday]

what an old fascist

[gladys46]

Anything calling itself "republican" is toast this election ... Mc has no chance, even if he creeps under cover of night to meet Bush for the attache case fill with $$$! He's a very old repub fascist!

[mkg489]

Seeing this picture gave me the same chilling intuit of anxiety I got when I saw Bush's motorcade approaching his inauguration in 2000--that something ominous had arrived.

[TiffanyHusseinBanned]

Gramps says he hates unemployment and terrists, so that’s what makes him a maverick, a leader and a changer.

[gladys46]

Is Mc going to yell age discrimination ... ah, blame Obama for his age? Will that be the distracting ploy which carries america off a float for 3 months!? "Cause Mc needs something, something ... at this point he has no chance against Obama! He can't be the best repubs have ... tell me it ain't true!

[gladys46]

Mc's Ad ... "... when I was 5 yrs old ..." when was that precisely! Are they crazy, why would his handlers think that that man should remind anybody of "when he was ...." That should totally cause any thinking person to shiver!