George Will tells the truth:

On Sunday's This Week, George Will expressed disdain for the administration's sweeping claims of freedom to act without regard to the Congress or the courts. Now he's put it in writing in a Washington Post Op-Ed, No Checks, Many Imbalances. Some key entries:

• the present administration ... asserts ... that whenever the nation is at war, the other two branches of government have a radically diminished pertinence to governance, and the president determines what that pertinence shall be.
• the administration's stance that warrantless surveillance by the National Security Agency targeting American citizens on American soil is a legal exercise of the president's inherent powers as commander in chief ... violates the clear language of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was written to regulate wartime surveillance.
• the administration's argument that because the president is commander in chief, he is the "sole organ for the nation in foreign affairs." ... is refuted by the Constitution's plain language, which empowers Congress to ratify treaties, declare war, fund and regulate military forces, and make laws "necessary and proper" for the execution of all presidential powers.[emp original]

posted by Quiddity at 2/15/2006 11:29:00 PM