Legal Commentary

Nobody Could Have Predicted . . .

By Big Tent Democrat

The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, government officials said in recent interviews. . . . The intelligence officials said the problems had grown out of changes enacted by Congress last July in the law that regulates the government’s wiretapping powers, and the challenges posed by enacting a new framework for collecting intelligence on terrorism and spying suspects.

(Emphasis supplied.) Well nobody could have predicted it except everyone who predicted it (See Glenn Greenwald and Digby.) But let's face it, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and all the the triangulators of your civil liberties knew exactly what they were doing. Of course, the stupidity of it all is even taking the crass and cynical view - just looking at the politics - they were wrong:

What motivated Pelosi and the Democrats to incur the wrath of their liberal base and allow one of the Administration's most controversial anti-terror policies to be extended? A mix of politics, pragmatism and some significant concessions. . . .

Stonewalling the Administration and letting the surveillance powers expire could have cost the Democrats swing seats they won in 2006 as well as new ones they have a chance to steal from Republicans this November. "For any Republican-leaning district this would have been a huge issue," says a top Pelosi aide, who estimates that as many as 10 competitive races could have been affected by it.

That was just wrong. It was not going to be a big issue for any swing voter. Anybody who cared about it was a committed vote already. It is worth remembering that Democrats have done nothing to earn the power they now hold. There were no great political strategies or tactic that explain the Democratic victories in 2006 and 2008. they won by default - by not being George Bush's party.

They have yet to prove any skill at governance. They are dominant politically because they are not Republicans. That's it. It remains to be seen what they do with their opportunity.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 16, 2009 (boomark / email).