Every once in awhile, for pure masochistic reasons, I wander over to the wingnuts side of the fence and see what they're saying about their Preznit. It keeps me grounded in understanding just how nutty the rationalizations are over there. In today's installment, Andrew McCarthy, at the ever rationalizing NRO's "The Corner" makes an attempt at proving the President is above the law. All this is in preparations for a GOP defense of the Preznit during the illegal domestic wiretap hearings, slated to begin tomorrow.

The short version?

It's Clinton's fault.

The longer version? Excerpted:

The letter [from Clinton Justice Dept. official Walter Dellinger back during the Clinton administration] demonstrates that settled legal principles, developed by the federal courts since the Nation’s founding and cited by administrations of both political parties, most assuredly including the Clinton administration, emphasize that the President of the United States has plenary authority in the matter of foreign intelligence collection (and foreign affairs generally). Bryan also illustrates that separation-of-powers principles obligate the President to decline to enforce (i.e., to ignore) congressional statutes that encroach on or purport to limit the executive’s constitutional powers – just as FISA does. This, too, is a position the Justice Department has aggressively defended under both Republican and Democrat administrations.

Let's make an assumption. A really big assumption. Let's assume that the Clinton administration made an argument for unfettered executive power. I don't believe that and suspect there's more to the story. But let's go with that a minute.

Has there ever been a President who has not explored the limits of executive power? No. It's part of the job description. What the wingnuts don't get is that, while I think Bush is an idiot, wanker, and all other politically derogatory terms I could think of, the real branch of government that has endangered the Constitution is Congress. The lack of oversight by the GOP dominated Congress has led to there being virtually no boundaries to Bush's attempts to exert power. Yeah, I blame him for taking advantage, revealing the true nature of his mendacity. But it's the job of Congress to "check and balance" against mendacious an elected executive.

So wingnuts, go ahead and use Clinton as the poster child for all of Bush's wrongs, trying to defend Bush's indefensible actions. It doesn't matter, because you totally missed the point....probably on purpose....because it's all ya got!