Shot in the foot
And once more it seems that liberals have tripped over their own withered and dysfunctional cranks on a national-security issue:
THE NATION would benefit from a serious, scholarly and hard-hitting judicial examination of the National Security Agency’s program of warrantless surveillance. The program exists on ever-more uncertain legal ground; it is at least in considerable tension with federal law and the Bill of Rights. Careful judicial scrutiny could serve both to hold the administration accountable and to provide firmer legal footing for such surveillance as may be necessary for national security.
Unfortunately, the decision yesterday by a federal district court in Detroit, striking down the NSA’s program, is neither careful nor scholarly, and it is hard-hitting only in the sense that a bludgeon is hard-hitting. The angry rhetoric of U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor will no doubt grab headlines. But as a piece of judicial work — that is, as a guide to what the law requires and how it either restrains or permits the NSA’s program — her opinion will not be helpful.
That’s a WaPo op-ed — the WaPo being not exactly a bastion of hawkish conservatism — on what might come to be known as “Diggs’s Folly.” The Carter appointee has now provided yet another example of how liberal Democrats deem it appropriate to fight the WoT: from either their knees, or their backs. Or perhaps flat on their faces, a more typical posture for the requisite groveling. The NSA program, among others constantly kvetched and caviled about by liberals with a sudden and unaccustomed regard for individual liberties, was both popular and effective, so maybe they’ll find this decision quite a little drag on their heels come election time. It’d sure serve ‘em right; if we’re ever going to win this damned war, some pissypants-pacifist chickens need to come home to roost at DNC HQ in a big, fat way.
Liberal Democrats: “Tough.” “Smart.” And weak as a newborn fawn when it comes to national defense. We forget it at our peril.
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The roads could use some work.