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Specter: Prof. Turner, you are a strong defender of presidential authority. What would be wrong with the president submitting to the FISA court the program that he has? He's obligated to make adisclosure to the FISA court. It's in part domestic surveillance. What would be wrong with the prez disclosing to FISA his program?

Turner: What we know about the program, what was reported in the NYT and by Gen. Hayden and AG all say that one party to every conversation was a foreign national outside the country. It's the target that matters. The targets are foreigners.

There are two problems with FISA. I'm told there is new technology that I don't undedrstand but makes it hard to do FISA. We know cell phone numbers used by AQ but we don't know who is talking.

Delay is a problem. If law enforcement wants to intercept a phone call, two days might pass by the time they go through teh hoops. They need signatures, committees, meetings, then they put together a binder about an inch thick for each case and get in line in the court. The court judges deserve high praise for workign hard, but they can't respond quickly enough.

Before you can listen you have to go through this entire process. FISA works sometimes and provides a useful check. But when the president decides that immediate action is required sometimes, the thought of censure is that Congress doesn't have in mind national security but the next election.

Lindsey Graham: Fein, we've worked together in the past and I share some of your concerns about inherent authority wtihout check. This crowd in the WH really believes this stuff. Will you give them credit for believing what they believe? (What a stupid, stupid question)

Fein: I don't doubt it.

Graham: Good. Because the ydo believe it. To say anything else is a joke. Mr. Dean, this is different from Watergate. Did you believe there was a legal basis for the president to break into the hotel?

Dean: No.

Graham: No one read the constitutin that you or the president could break into watergate. Isn't there a difference between breaking ...

Dean: The president didn't authorit it. I didn't either.

Graham: Did he cover up a crime he knew to be a crime.

Dean: He covered up for national security reasons.

Graham: He covred up to cover his hide.

"But when the president decides that immediate action is required sometimes, the thought of censure is that Congress doesn't have in mind national security but the next election."

A money quote. God bless you, Peach, for what you do here at FR.