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And the Post:What we have now is not a robust executive but a reckless one. At times like this, it's apparent that Cheney and Bush want more power not because they need it to protect the nation, but because they want more power. Another paradox: In their conduct of the war on terror, they expect our trust, but they can't be bothered to earn it.
What is clear...is that circumventing both Congress and the judiciary -- as the administration has done -- was the wrong way to address whatever problem the intelligence agencies faced. ...
FISA explicitly contemplates the need for warrantless surveillance in wartime -- allowing it for 15 days after a declaration of war, of which the authorization is probably the legal equivalent. If this was not good enough, it was incumbent on the administration to explain why not and seek a legislative change. Mr. Moschella wrote that this was impossible because the goal was to create an early warning system and "any legislative change . . . would have been public and would have tipped off our enemies." But the right answer cannot be such a unilateral claim of power. If there was a problem with FISA -- and that's not yet known -- it was Congress's job to fix it and the administration's job to convince lawmakers of the need to do so.