Dodd debunks McConnell

By Libby Spencer

Mike McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, National Minister of Disinformation, writes a disgustingly self-serving op-ed for the NYT today but Chris Dodd is right on it. He's a lot more polite than I feel like being about it.

In what has become a sad pattern, Mr. McConnell, like many in this Administration past and present, tries to convince the public that we must abandon the rule of law to protect the telecom industry from being held accountable if they broke any laws. He writes, "[I]t is critical for the intelligence community to have liability protection for private parties that are sued only because they are believed to have assisted us after Sept. 11, 2001."

Mr. McConnell is flat wrong.

To suggest that the telecoms are being sued "only" because they assisted the government after September 11th is disingenuous at best. Companies like AT&T and Verizon find themselves in court today not because they assisted the government by handing over their customers' personal and private information - but because they appear to have broken the law by doing so. The telecoms are being sued because they did not receive a warrant - yet they went ahead and helped the Administration anyway.

The closing graf is a great one. If ony we had a president who spoke like this.

I believe we can't protect our country if we fail to protect our Constitution and the rule of law. It is precisely by upholding our rights that we become safer and more secure at home. The opposite path is fundamentally flawed, inherently dangerous, and, apparently, embraced by our Director of National Intelligence. Given all that this Administration has done to trample our Constitution, it may not be surprising - but it remains disappointing.

It's a shame Dodd doesn't get more respect, and by that I mean press coverage, from the establishment media. If more Americans had easy access to his message, I'd guess he would be the frontrunner right now.

Meanwhile, McConnell is trying to spin the telecoms as having willingly broken the law out of some kind of patriotism. What a steaming sack of cow pucks. Maybe he thinks we don't know they received millions of tax dollar's worth of contracts in order to do so. Of course the GOP has had this problem confusing greed with good business practices for a long time now.

(Cross-posted at The Impolitic.)