McCain Changing His Story on Spying?
As referenced on the front page this morning, Senator John McCain came out in opposition to the President’s use of the NSA to monitor domestic communications. From Think Progress:
WALLACE: But you do not believe that currently he has the legal authority to engage in these warrant-less wiretaps.MCCAIN: You know, I don’t think so, but why not come to Congress? We can sort this all out. I don’t think — I know of no member of Congress, frankly, who, if the administration came and said here’s why we need this capability, that they wouldn’t get it. And so let’s have the hearings.
But what did he have to say just a month ago on the same topic?
From MSNBC:
Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said, “I take him (Bush) at his word” that the order was critical to saving lives and consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution.”"The president, I think, has the right to do this, and yet, I don’t know why he didn’t go” through court procedures, McCain told ABC’s “This Week.”
“I know that the leaders of Congress were consulted, and that’s a very important part of this equation,” McCain said.
Has he changed his story because of new information about the program? Or has he flopped to the other side as a result of his presidential aspirations?
Is John McCain simply a political opportunist? I would tend to believe so.
On a similar note, If anyone is interested in co-authoring a blog about the true McCain (i.e. his ultra-conservative voting record) email me at [username]@gmail.com
I am in the planning stages and would love company.
I supported the wiretaps initially until I spent a while researching it. Isn’t it possible that when he said “I don’t know why he didn’t go through the courts” and “I take the president at his word” it indicates that he admits he does not know all of the details? Maybe if you weren’t too busy camping out at Roswell hatching conspiracy theories, you would have an ounce of common sense…
Also, would it not be reasonable for him to assume that since members of congress (who are mostly lawyers) were consulted, that persons knowledgeable of the law gave him the thumbs up? Read FISA section 18. Lindsay Graham, an Air Force lawyer, was immediately opposed to the wiretaps. It seems reasonable to me that a Navy pilot may need to do a bit more homework before having reason to call the president a liar. READ SECTION 18 of the FISA act.