*Bingo* The guy Rush spoke with indicated that the "red tape process" had to be completed BEFORE the warrant request could even get before the FISA court. Makes me think that it must be very complicated to reform the bureaucracy, but you're right, Bush screwed up by not implementing reforms.
Rather than change what was wrong with the process after 9/11, they got frustrated with the existing bureaucracy, red tape & time it took to go through those channels. It should have been changed immediately after 9/11, but Bush doesn't lend his ear to enough people in the know who are dealing with endless bureaucratic frustrations everyday which delay important action.
as Clinton's did with the Gorelick Wall
I disagree with you here. There is no way the Clinton/Gorelick Wall can be compared to this situation. The Clinton administration didn't hamstring themselves. They implemented the wall to deliberately control the flow of information. It was an obstacle that was MEANT to serve no other purpose. Corruption ran rampant through that administration and the wall was a way to help keep the lid on.
I didn't mean to make much of a comparison, other than to use the Gorelick Wall as a concrete example of red tape being "self-erected" somewhere within the investigatory machinery itself.
Good post, yours - and I agree that the motives of Clinton were almost purely self-serving, and I believe that President Bush's motives are mostly nation-serving.