This is Nixon on David Frost, in the 70s...
FROST: So what in a sense, you're saying is that there are certain situations, and the Huston Plan or that part of it was one of them, where the president can decide that it's in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal.

NIXON: Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.

FROST: By definition.

NIXON: Exactly. Exactly. If the president, for example, approves something because of the national security, or in this case because of a threat to internal peace and order of significant magnitude, then the president's decision in that instance is one that enables those who carry it out, to carry it out without violating a law. Otherwise they're in an impossible position.

what is needed to be remembered is that Cheney was Nixon's cheif of staff, and the recent scandals wrt domestic spying, are really about Cheney correcting past fuck ups, continuing the narrative of Nixon, fixing things that he didnt have the chance to do in the past...

the question then, is that in the 70s, this was self correcting, the terrorism was harder to pin down, it was there, but it was post vietnam and it was american (weather people), and so the american people began not to trust either the radical left of the executive branch of the government...

the terrorism right now is (mostly) exterior, and easier to launch into excuses, but it isnt self correcting, the (center) left is allowing the executive branch to do things that they thot was obscene 30 yrs ago, why is that? it cant just be 9/11.

we need to remind ourselves of the people in Bush;s life came to power under Nixon (rove and his dirty tricks against atwater come immediately to mind), and continue it unfinished business, keep recent past more current.

also Cheney has appeared on cnn/fox and the sunday morning shows actually running this dog to the hunt, he has stated it over and over again, plainly and w/o conflict--he believes that the constituion allows for any action that the president wishes to do, and he also has managed to push the agenda of wartime presidency into a kind of orwellian permanant war--the list of at least 100 orgs that they have spied on, include queer groups, qaukers, ordinary pacifists, and little musilms...

(thinking about this more, the ny times knew about hte domestic spying program, just before novemember 04, maybe earlier. b/w holding onto this, judith miller's cuddling realtionship to the admin, and their reporting on yellowcake, who thinks of the time as left/liberal anymore, how actually believes in the myth of the liberal media?