The Constitution: A Safe Haven for Terrorists

This Sunday on Meet the Press Secretary Rice explained that President Bush needed to wiretap American citizens in the United States without a warrant and without going through the procedures required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) because it is important to prevent the "use of American territory as a safe haven for communications between terrorist operating here or people with terrorist links operating here and people operating outside of the country."

The "safe haven" of which Secretary Rice speaks is the constitutional protections afforded by the Fourth Amendment, which apply to American citizens on American soil. What Secretary Rice is saying, in effect, is that the President wants the same freedom from constitutional limitations within the United States that he enjoys on the battlefield or overseas.

What a shame that the Constitution seems to be getting in the way of the President doing whatever he wants. And he has the gall to talk about "strict construction." When it comes to his own prerogatives, this President clearly wants as loose a construction as possible.