Power As Principle?

A propos my post yesterday, the New York Times today puts the NSA spying scandal in the proper context:

Behind Power, One Principle as Bush Pushes Prerogatives - New York Times: "A single, fiercely debated legal principle lies behind nearly every major initiative in the Bush administration's war on terror, scholars say: the sweeping assertion of the powers of the presidency."

Except to elevate a power grab to a "legal principle" gives the Administration too much credit, methinks. What's ironic is that the abuses this Administration has committed in shoring up this "principle" will only undermine the legitimacy and authority of the executive in the long run.

So, specific authorization of an agency to illegally spy on American citizens -- high crime and misdemeanor? Perhaps, and had Bush been a Democrat he would have been long gone, but with this Congress we'll never know. Nonetheless, I reiterate Brad DeLong's familiar refrain:

IMPEACH GEORGE W. BUSH. IMPEACH RICHARD CHENEY. DO IT NOW.