Eavesdropping on Congress

Another money quote: " 'I'm embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical rhetorical gloss routinely used in politics to make self-interested partisan posturing appear more noble."

Johnny Mac writes a mean letter, don't he?

Lots of chatter on the WashPost's scoop on how few warrants the domestic surveillance program has produced:

Talk Left's Jeralyn Merritt :

"The Washington Post Sunday puts the lie to Bush's warrantless electronic surveillance program. Bush claims he doesn't spy on Americans. Cheney claims the program saved "thousands of lives."

The truth, as the Washington Post reports, is that the program has rarely uncovered information about terrorists or terrorists acts; the NSA has eavesdropped on many thousands of Americans without probable cause; and that probable cause or even reasonable suspicion will never exist because of the washout rate and number of false positives."

John Hinderaker at Power Line: "The Washington Post must have been feeling left out; today it joined the New York Times in violating the Espionage Act by revealing secrets about the United States' intelligence-gathering means and methods. Like the Times, the Post relies on anti-administration leakers, who themselves are committing felonies, to publish previously-unreported details of the NSA's efforts to identify terrorists both abroad and inside the United States."

Fred Barnes just wrote a book heavily praising Bush, and how he's had to backtrack just a bit:

"The administration's zeal, its daring, and passion for new world-changing initiatives seems to have faded with reelection. This often happens. In the sixth year of a presidency, the well runs dry. The flow of big ideas and bold proposals stops. It did for President Reagan. Tax reform was enacted in his sixth year, 1986, but it had been set in motion two years earlier. It did for President Clinton, who was tangled up in impeachment. Now it has for President Bush. The fresh parts of his agenda are underwhelming.

"The absence of a powerful new agenda has a silver lining. It gives the president a breathing spell to finish the major undertakings from his first term: the war on terrorism, Iraq, Iran, the promotion of democracy. Taking on those projects in the first place has made Bush a consequential president, a leader and not a caretaker. Bringing them to success would make him at least a near-great president. And there are two leftover domestic issues as well: immigration and making his tax cuts permanent."

"Near-Great" doesn't make for much of a book title.

The Nation's John Nichols chides the press for credulous coverage of Tom DeLay's successor: