It doesn't matter how it works...what matters is the power it gives a corrupt president.
It matters because Obama will do with the NSA just as he has done with the IRS and the EPA and the military. He will use it for political purposes.
Obama said, "the war on terror is over" as it pertains to jihadis. The only war he is now concerned with is one against those Americans who call themselves patriots and teapartiers and lovers of the Constitution.
The IRS is staffed with a bunch of idiot government "workers" while the NSA is staffed with a lot of really, really smart people.
Obama is going to be toast over this.. and so are a lot of other career politicians.