LIES & DECEPTION, THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION NEVER CONDUCTED ILLEGAL WIRETAPS

ONCE, A SINGLE TIME(!), THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION CONDUCTED A SEARCH WITHOUT A WARRANT, BUT IT WAS LEGAL AT THE TIME... (AND IT WAS ALDRICH AMES!)
IT'S NOT LEGAL ANYMORE.

SO THE LAME "THEY DID IT TOO..." EXCUSE, WHICH A.G. GONZALES & W.H. SPOKESMAN-MCLELLAN WERE PEDDLING THAT ONE DAY, WAS NOT ONLY UNPERSUASIVE, BUT FALSE...
THEY WERE LYING:

(T)he Clinton administration made a warrantless physical search of suspected spy Aldrich Ames' home in 1993. At the time, the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act did not prohibit warrantless physical searches. In this case of one man whose espionage did extraordinary damage to U.S. security, Clinton authorized one.

Later, in her congressional testimony in 1994, Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick indeed made the point that FISA did not extend to such searches. But she made the point because the Clinton administration was supporting efforts to amend FISA so it would cover physical searches. Congress passed that amendment in 1995 and Clinton signed it.

So what you have is a legal, warrantless search of a single identified individual (Ames) who posed a serious threat to the nation, versus illegal, warrantless wiretaps on thousands of Americans who posed no threat whatsoever. The New York Times reported last week that in this illegal program, the National Security Agency sent the FBI a "flood" of telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and names that "required hundreds of agents to check out thousands of tips a month." Of those, "virtually all led to dead ends or innocent Americans," officials told the Times. This entire operation resulted in hundreds of agents being pulled away from more promising investigations into terrorism.
(Edit: JUST LIKE WHITEWATER, JONES...)
:::
...Gore had it right when he implored Congress to also reassert its authority by holding comprehensive hearings into this issue. More is at stake than just illegal domestic wiretapping, as Gore rightly pointed out. According to Bush doctrine, there are no checks and balances in American government anymore. A president can do what he pleases in the name of national security, and neither Congress nor the judiciary can stop him. At the end of the day, that is the real threat to American democracy. Eventually, terrorism will fade as a threat. But if Bush succeeds with his overweening view of presidential authority, the United States may never recover the careful balance designed by the Constitution(.)

Nice try, fellas! Liars..., Herb.