A president who breaks the law and does not take responsibility for his actions is even worse. Clinton hired (or hired someone who hired) Craig Livinstone, about whose Filegate exploits Rep. Lantos (D, CA) remarked, "Admiral Borda committed suicide over less." That was harsh - but perfectly true. If you're looking for intrusion on the privacy of Americans which was dangerous to the Republic, spying on domestic political enemies as such was a perfect example of what a president should never do. But Clinton did not take responsibility even for hiring someone who hired Craig Livingstone.Bush told members of Congress what he was doing, and his national security reasons as his authority for doing so. Al Gore has a dim idea of the concept - when he was caught violating the law against using government offices to make phone calls soliciting political donations, he appealed to the fact that no one had ever been prosecuted for violating that law (of course, the law had never been tested because everyone knew that the prohibition would be upheld in court, and only Gore had ever been caught violating it).
Gore said there was "no controlling legal authority" when he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Bush is pleading exactly the same thing - with the difference that he has a colorable argument that the law he was "violating" would not be enforcable in court against him because he actually had the Constitutional authority and duty to do what he did.
Bump.