Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

In fact, according to this explanation, the program was not only illegal but unnecessarily puts the American people at risk.

If we know that U.S. persons are communicating with al Qaeda or al Qaeda affiliates, the surveillance would be approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. (Remember, doing so would not slow the process down because you can obtain the approval up to 72-hours after the surveillance has begun.) Evidence obtained with a warrant from the FISA court, in most cases, can be used to charge and prosecute a suspect. In fact, Section 218 of the Patriot Act amended FISA to make it easier to introduce evidence obtained with a FISA warrant to prosecute people.

This is the best that White House strategists have to offer -- arguing "the censure issue could work to Bush's advantage. It could, they say, give the President's allies a fresh reason to portray the Democrats as zealots eager to destroy Bush's presidency. And if the Democrats took control of the House or Senate in this fall's mid-term elections, 'you'd see a lot more of this kind of thing -- attacks on the President,' says a senior GOP strategist. 'The Democrats would try to destroy the President's legacy throughout '07 and '08. They would grossly politicize everything.'"

And these tactics might work if Bush's approval wasn't cycling its way down the toilet.

Indeed, because of Bush's unpopularity, those congressional Republicans who would have at one time rushed to Bush's side, are now distancing themselves from "him on a variety of issues, ranging from immigration reform to the Dubai ports deal."

And though some senior White House officials are claiming that "The more people around the country know about this [censure], the more they feel it is an extreme position," I believe quite the opposite is true. For those who know what 'censure' is, I imagine the support is divided largely between party lines. For those who understand that a discussion has erupted regarding some sort of punishment to put the Administration in check, there is likely a feeling that "it's about time".

Not surprisingly, the Republicans are preemptively charging that a would-be congressional Democratic majority would attempt to 'destroy Bush's presidency' without any word of acknowledgement that Bush has already done that himself.