Bush's NSA spying defense doesn't hold up

The New York Times has written an editorial thoroughly debunking the Bush administration's justifications of the NSA's warantless wiretapping.

A bit over a week ago, President Bush and his men promised to provide the legal, constitutional and moral justifications for the sort of warrantless spying on Americans that has been illegal for nearly 30 years. Instead, we got the familiar mix of political spin, clumsy historical misinformation, contemptuous dismissals of civil liberties concerns, cynical attempts to paint dissents as anti-American and pro-terrorist, and a couple of big, dangerous lies.

The full editorial is a good summary of the situation, and it ends with a strong call for Congress to take action:

The Senate Judiciary Committee is about to start hearings on the domestic spying. Congress has failed, tragically, on several occasions in the last five years to rein in Mr. Bush and restore the checks and balances that are the genius of American constitutional democracy. It is critical that it not betray the public once again on this score.

(Via Representative Conyers's blog and my SO's mom, who made me aware of the editorial within about five minutes of each other.)