Moose Assumes the Position

Check out good smackdowns by Josh Marshall, Kevin Drum, and Armando against conservative "arguments" defending Bush's illegal wiretapping. Unfortunately I have to take up the cudgel against Bull Moose. I've always been a friendly critic of the Moose, but now he's just gone a little too far.

In his latest post, Moose suggests that liberal critics of the Bush administration are behaving as unreasonably as the right did during the Clinton administration - some of us are even suggesting impeachment. Moose argues that the Bush-authorized searches were eminently reasonable, that FISA is outdated, and that the President was acting with goodwill. If congressional democrats didn't like it, they should have said something earlier.

To risk being labeled a "puerile cyber-commissars"......

To believe that the Bush administration was using these powers in good faith is to display the most breathtaking niavete. It seems like Moose is following his icon McCain into the on-all-fours crowd. How is it that spying on American citizens without a warrant or any judicial oversight whatsoever is consistent with civil liberties? If the FISA is so out of date, why did Bush not suggest we change it? It displays a pretty cavalier attitude about the law to just ignore it - an attitude unbecoming in the enforcer of the nation's laws. And what does Moose make it Bush's spying on socialists, peace protesters, gays, etc.? It's not like those groups are allied with Al Quaeda. And what would have happened to any Democrat who, in the days after 9/11, had demanded that Bush be accountable for these actions? Moose has forgotten the degree to which Bush ruled through fear and intimidation in the weeks following the fall of the towers.

It is one statement which most clearly indicates the degree to which Moose has bent over and presented himself to the Theocons: "He [Bush] was not attempting to strengthen his hold on power." Clearly Moose has not been paying attention to the frenetic assertions of absolute executive power Bush has made over the last four years. One could argue in fact that Bush's presidency has been about nothing else but strengthening his hold on power.

Have a good time with your new friends, Moosie. You should look around and realize which camp you've joined. Just don't complain when they start suspending elections, imprisoning gays and torturing peace activists. Criticizing such things might be deemed "unreasonable."

Sad to say, Moose has decided that 9/11 requires him to get on his knees before Bush and the Theocons. All I have to say is - I hope he enjoys the taste.