I WOULD rathe not subject anyone to another ranting editorial about warrantless wiretapping of American citizens. Except to say that the circumstances surrounding the debate are hauntingly familiar. The American Civil Liberties Union assures us, and I agree, that the warrantless wiretapping of American citizens is an egregious violation of privacy and an unconstitutional abuse of executive power. To be fair, should we be surprised?
Can anyone recall the last time an administration hasn't exceeded the constitutional limits of executive power? Of course you can't -- after all, you probably weren't alive during the Cleveland administration. This is not to say that Bush's wiretapping is any less reprehensible, quite the opposite in fact. The pattern only reflects that he is not the first, nor will it be the last president who proudly breaks the law under the thin veil of protecting "national security." The villainy of illegal domestic wiretapping segues nicely to another question: Why do presidents abuse their power so frequently?
It is worth noting that almost every contemporary example of presidential overreaching invariably involves the intelligence community. From Nixon to Bush 43, presidents have consistently used the CIA, NSA or the FBI to push the envelope of presidential power -- a political euphemism for breaking the law. But seldom do they surpass the American people's tolerance for a certain amount of "criminal" behavior. This statement is a bit ambiguous, and it needs qualification.
Let us begin with the best, so to speak. Richard Nixon set the standard for high crimes and misdemeanors with a résumé of crimes that would make John Gotti weep with shame. Watergate was the criminal straw that finally broke this camel's back, but the list mustn't stop there. During his tenure, Nixon accepted illegal campaign contributions, along with Henry Kissinger, ordered illegal bombings in Indochina, spied on American citizens with the warrantless wiretapping (Uncanny, isn't it?) and robbery and lied about all of it and more.
The Nixon era is an example of when criminality goes too far -- his crimes soared above and beyond that which the American people were willing to tolerate. Perhaps if he had stuck with wiretapping and illegal campaign contributions, he wouldn't have been expelled with torches and pitchforks. That is, are there certain crimes that are palatable?
Ronald Reagan and his cronies devised a surreptitious scheme to illegally sell arms to Iran in order to illegally fund the overthrow of the legal government of Nicaragua. Fortunately for the Gipper, his emptily naïve television visage gave him deniability -- the Holy Grail for political criminals. His own Defense Secretary, Casper Weinberger, noted that Reagan could easily survive violating the law, so long as he didn't appear weak on Iran.
On to President George W. Bush, whose campaign of domestic spying is currently under concerned review. Wiretapping is not new
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