  Monday, December 19, 2005  Claiming the right to break the law
Despite the uproar this weekend among right-wing bloggers who
were insisting (and are still insisting) that the
Administration’s warrantless eavesdropping on American citizens
complied with FISA, there is actually no real controversy about
this because no reasonable ground exists for disputing that the
Administration violated that law – as even the Administration
itself is now acknowledging.  Put another way, Administration
lovers were so desperate to defend their leader at all costs --
they begin with the pre-ordained resolve to defend Bush no
matter what and thereafter search for a rationale to prop up
that goal -- that they latched onto an argument this weekend
which is so facially wrong that even the Administration itself
repudiates it as a grounds for defending the President’s
conduct.  As was predicted yesterday, the Administration is not
defending itself by claiming that its warrantless surveillance
complied with FISA. It cannot claim th