Wiretaps? What wiretaps? OOohh, those wiretaps...

"In Washington, President Bush urged that during the lame-duck session that starts next week, Congress pass a bill effectively authorizing the program. And in San Francisco, the Justice Department told a federal court that public scrutiny of the operation risked “exceptionally grave harm to national security.”

But Democrats sounded impatient to begin getting more answers after what they characterized as 11 months of stonewalling by the administration since the program was publicly disclosed last December."

[snip]

“We all believe that monitoring the communications of suspected terrorists is essential,” Mr. Leahy said. “But especially when the monitoring involves Americans, it needs to be done lawfully and with adequate checks and balances to prevent abuses of Americans’ rights and Americans’ privacy.”

The shift in power on Capitol Hill sets up the likelihood of a showdown between the White House and Congress over the direction of not only the N.S.A. program but also a range of other aggressive counterterrorism operations that the administration has undertaken since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."