Remember when people were pissed that the Bush Administration had been listening to phone conversations without a warrant? President Bush said it was due to FISA taking their sweet-ass time to approve warrants. Let's also not forget the assurance that it was only to international calls to suspected terrorist.

After looking at the stats about how many warrants FISA was denying during the Bush Administration compared to previous administrations, I fully backed this decision.

But now there has been a compromise.

Gonzales wrote a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee saying "The president is committed to using all lawful tools to protect our nation from the terrorist threat, including making maximum use of the authorities provided by FISA and taking full advantage of developments in the law."

I've got two theories on this.

The first theory is that President Bush has caved. Just like firing Rumsfeld, he has continued with the feeling that he needs to give the Democrats more of what they're demanding since they finally won an election.

The second theory is that Bush has come up with some of surveillance tool/program that is much more effective than listening to phone calls. I've got nothing to back this up and is thus purely a theory. Or perhaps just a wishful hope.

Either way, what the hell?

He's a spineless faggot who lacks the convictions it takes to stand behind his original plan of action.

Who's the Flip Flop now

Astounding insight from both of you.

Honestly, I think its more likely that the program's effectiveness dropped down to nearly zero after it became public knowledge that we were listening in to calls, so there was no reason for Bush to wade into the middle of a bloody fight with Congress that would probably result in the disclosure of other programs - either inadvertantly or on purpose - that are being used now as well.

I think Bush was clearly in the right with this program, but once a program like this is blown, its not worth fighting over anymore.

Brian, another interesting theory, but it makes it look like he's caving now. It looks weak.

After doing all they could to make the case that he needed this authority, he's now dropping it like no big deal.