Chris Dodd: Standing Up for Freedom

Chris Dodd deserves the gratitude of freedom loving people around the world for standing up against legislation that will grant telecom companies immunity from illegal actions they may have taken under the Bush Administration.

Now, according to an article in the New York Times, the Bush wiretaps were not (as we were told) focused only on defending us from terrorists, but were used on a broad range of issues.

Yet, in the face of repeated lies, we are still giving the government the benefit of the doubt. With morally bankrupt people such as Rove, Cheney, and Gonzales in charge of these powers, and with no oversight, what reason is there to believe that the Bush Administration has not been spying on political rivals as well?

There may well be a reason why the Democratic leadership in Congress seems ineffective against this President.

Ultimately, it does not matter whether the Administration has engaged in this type of abuse. The fact is that they could have. The fact is that, if the Administation has the power to spy on others without any court oversight, that eventually some administration will abuse this power to try to control Congress, manipulate judges, and control the rest of us. Judicial oversight is required for the Administration to be called up short once it starts spying on its political rivals.