Bush re-dubs NSA wiretaps the "Terrorist Surveillance Program"

The long process of repudiating all of the Democrats false information about the program begins... MANHATTAN, Kansas (AP) -- President Bush on Monday rejected critics' assertion that he broke the law by authorizing domestic eavesdropping without a warrant, saying he was doing what Congress authorized him to do to protect Americans from terrorist attacks. With congressional hearings set to begin on this issue February 6, Bush kicked his administration's new intensive public relations effort to win support for the program run by the National Security Agency. As part of that, he attempted to give it a new label -- the Terrorist Surveillance Program. Bush noted that Sen. Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who is opening hearings into the program, was among the lawmakers on Capitol Hill who were given regular updates about the surveillance by the White House. "It's amazing that people say to me, `Well, he's just breaking the law," the president said, with Roberts sitting behind him on stage at Kansas State University. "If I wanted to break the law, why was I briefing Congress?" The Terrorist Surveillance Program... I like it. TSP. It's catchy. From now on that's how we'll be referring to the program. And Bush's quip "If I wanted to break the law, why am I briefing Congress" is great, and inserts a little common sense back into an issue the Democrats were trying to turn into mass hysteria. I think Bush is quicker on his feet than most critics give him credit for. There's a great quote in the book I'm reading, Shadow Wars, where Bush was talking with, I believe, a diplomat from Dubai (I don't have the book right in front of me, so I'll doublecheck this later). The foreign minister/diplomat quoted a Muslim proverb that went something like, "A caged cat, can eventually become a lion" when referring to the caution he wished to take when dealing with al Qaeda. Bush responded with "Well the cat has rabies and the only way to cure it is to cut its head off." Oh, Snap!