Liberal Joe Klein Thinks Fellow Liberals Are Goofy On NSA

The piece is littered with anti-Bush statements to prove his liberal quals, but he offers some sound advice:

... the Democrats are on thin ice here. Some of the wilder donkeys talked about a possible Bush impeachment after the NSA program was revealed.

The latest version of the absolutely necessary Patriot Act, which updates the laws regulating the war on terrorism and contains civil-liberties improvements over the first edition, was nearly killed by a stampede of Senate Democrats. Most polls indicate that a strong majority of Americans favor the act, and I suspect that a strong majority would favor the NSA program as well, if its details were declassified and made known.

In fact, liberal Democrats are about as far from the American mainstream on these issues as Republicans were when they invaded the privacy of Terri Schiavo's family in the right-to-die case last year.

But there is a difference. National security is a far more important issue, and until the Democrats make clear that they will err on the side of aggressiveness in the war against al-Qaeda, they will probably not regain the majority in Congress or the country.

The piece is titled How To Stay Out Of Power. But I'm not sure they need any further instruction along those lines.

Bonus: Turns out Nancy Pelosi's letter, leaked last week to show her "protest" against the NSA's more aggressive stance, was misleading, and deliberately so.

posted by Ace at 11:44 PM

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