McCain on spying and executive power. Uh oh. Flip-flop!

Glenn Greenwald, author of the magnificent book, Great American Hypocrites, published an article at Salon.com on June 3 which lays out in sharp relief how McCain the flip-flopper, flipped on the issue of "spying and executive power."

Back in December of 2007, Charlie Savage of The Boston Globe sent a questionnaire to all the presidential candidates "on executive power, spying and torture." Greenwald notes that "McCain explicitly refused to answer whether he thought there was 'any executive power the Bush administration has claimed or exercised that . . . is unconstitutional."

But, on the question as to whether the president has "inherent powers ... to conduct surveillance for national security purposes without judicial warrants, regardless of federal statutes," McCain answered in a manner "completely at odds with the Bush/Cheney/Yoo view of executive power."

Here's what he said: "There are some areas where the statutes don't apply, such as in the surveillance of overseas communications. Where they do apply, I think that presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, no matter what the situation is."

In response to a related question, McCain said: "I don't think the president has the right to disobey any law."


That, of course, is in direct opposition to the Bush administration's belief that the prez can spy on Americans without warrants even though the law forbids such surveillance! As Greenwald points out, McCain's answer was identical to those give by Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Ron Paul, and Barack Obama.

"But that was December. Now that McCain is desperate to shore up the support of right-wing extremists, he just gave the exact opposite answer yesterday." It was part of a heated discussion "among right-wing executive power fanatics" and began when a McCain rep said "that McCain opposes telecom amnesty in the absence of probing hearings and an apology from the telecoms." This is "a reversal of McCain's January vote for full telecom amnesty without those conditions."

Oops. The McCain campaign said McCain has not changed his mind and all the reports that he said something at one time and said something different at another time were due to "negligently written" newspaper stories that "displayed a reckless disregard for key facts, and that 'John McCain's position on immunity has not changed. Period.'"


Flip-flop. On June 2, the McCain campaign gave the National Review another statement to clarify old John's views on executive power and spying. In that statement McCain supports the "FISA modernization bill passed by the Senate without qualification. He believes no additional steps should be necessary to secure immunity for the telecoms ... "and neither the Administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions that most people, except for the ACLU and the trial lawyers, understand were Constitutional and appropriate in the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001."

So, in December McCain supported the position supported by the ACLU. Now, the ACLU is the devil, which is what his right-wing supporters believe. Last December, McCain said the presidents must obey the law, "no matter what the situation is." Now he says that Bush and the telecoms were within their rights by disobeying the law, i.e., spying without warrants, because of 9/11.

McCain either forgot what he said in December or he lied back then or he'll believe anything he needs to believe to obtain the necessary votes to become prezident. Evidently, it's the latter. Here's more of McCain's statement to the National Review:

"We do not know what lies ahead in our nation's fight against radical Islamic extremists, but John McCain will do everything he can to protect Americans from such threats, including asking the telecoms for appropriate assistance to collect intelligence against foreign threats to the United States as authorized by Article II of the Constitution."

But as Greenwald points out, "In December, McCain said there was no such thing as Article II power to order surveillance in violation of FISA and agreed that, when it comes to warrantless eavesdropping, 'federal statute trumps inherent power.'"


As we have seen, the Bushites over the last seven years have taken the view that "when it comes to national security, war and foreign policy . . . nothing can constrain what the President does -- not even laws enacted by the American people through their Congress. John McCain is now embracing those extremist theories in full."

Uh oh! Flip-flop! McCain does it again.