Bully Pulpit
The President was in rare form this morning.
December 19, 2005
In his Sunday night address to the nation last night, President Bush was earnest, thoughtful, and humble, even as he made clear that he thought staying on to victory the only possible course. He took pains to reassure doubters that he has heard their arguments, though he strongly disagrees. It was a well-written and well-argued, if at times awkwardly presented speech, delivered from the Oval Office from a teleprompter.
That is not really a format that plays to Bush's rhetorical advantage, given his forthright, informal style.
But he came to his news conference this morning loaded for bear -- he was bold, confident, upbeat, optimistic, relentlessly on message, and completely in command. Making no apology for the surveillance of overseas phone calls by the NSA, he openly declared that it will continue, as a necessary measure in the war. He almost seemed to be daring the opposing party to try to make partisan hay out of the matter.
First of all, I -- right after September the 11th, I knew we were fighting a different kind of war. And so I asked people in my administration to analyze how best for me and our government to do the job people expect us to do, which is to detect and prevent a possible attack. That's what the American people want. We looked at the possible scenarios. And the people responsible for helping us protect and defend came forth with the current program, because it enables us to move faster and quicker. And that's important. We've got to be fast on our feet, quick to detect and prevent. We use FISA still -- you're referring to the FISA court in your question -- of course, we use FISAs. But FISA is for long-term monitoring. What is needed in order to protect the American people is the ability to move quickly to detect. Now, having suggested this idea, I then, obviously, went to the question, is it legal to do so? I swore to uphold the laws. Do I have the legal authority to do this? And the answer is, absolutely. As I mentioned in my remarks, the legal authority is derived from the Constitution, as well as the authorization of force by the United States Congress.
Bush is, of course, at his best when he's directly challenging people to oppose his defense policies out in the open, because he knows that in a fair fight, prople will see that, whatever else you say, he certainly is on the side of a strong America, which regrettably cannot be said of many of his opponents. But Bush also knows that it hasn't been a fair fight, and that a unified, hostile press can keep the good news from getting out if he relies on what they call reporting. That is why it is so good to see more of this side of Bush, that he finally knows that it's time to take his case directly to the people, loudly and often.
That Bush has finally run out of patience with the bias of the MSM was made obvious when the Washington Post's Peter Baker tossed the following screwball in an attempt to suggest that the President was somehow usurping powers that were not his:
Q I wonder if you can tell us today, sir, what, if any, limits you believe there are or should be on the powers of a President during a war, at wartime? And if the global war on terror is going to last for decades, as has been forecast, does that mean that we're going to see, therefore, a more or less permanent expansion of the unchecked power of the executive in American society?
Bush had none of it, putting his finger directly on the false assertion of 'unchecked power'; and when the hapless partisan hack attempted to regroup by interrupting Bush's answer, he was soundly slapped back down. Twice:
THE PRESIDENT: First of all, I disagree with your assertion of "unchecked power."
Q Well --
THE PRESIDENT: Hold on a second, please. There is the check of people being sworn to uphold the law, for starters. There is oversight. We're talking to Congress all the time, and on this program, to suggest there's unchecked power is not listening to what I'm telling you. I'm telling you, we have briefed the United States Congress on this program a dozen times.
This is an awesome responsibility to make decisions on behalf of the American people, and I understand that, Peter. And we'll continue to work with the Congress, as well as people within our own administration, to constantly monitor programs such as the one I described to you, to make sure that we're protecting the civil liberties of the United States. To say "unchecked power" basically is ascribing some kind of dictatorial position to the President, which I strongly reject.
Q What limits do you --
THE PRESIDENT: I just described limits on this particular program, Peter. And that's what's important for the American people to understand. I am doing what you expect me to do, and at the same time, safeguarding the civil liberties of the country.
Having this sort of fight right out in public is good, not just because it warms the all-American heart to see a homunculus like Baker exposed, but also because it shows that Bush has finally had enough, and is ready to bring fire to a long-neglected front of the war -- against the organized, defeatist press.
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Revised: 05/19/08 08:06:52 -0400 .