Frist: Don't change FISA

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist manages to defend the law protecting Americans from domestic surveillance, while defending at the same time the president's right to break that law.

Frist has come out in opposition to proposed changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The changes would make legal such surveillance initiatives as Bush's NSA domestic spying program.

The AP reports:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, standing firmly with the White House on the administration's eavesdropping program, said Sunday he doesn't think new or updated legislation is needed to govern domestic surveillance to foil terrorists.

``I don't think that it does need to be rewritten, but we are holding hearings in the Judiciary Committee right now,'' Frist said on CBS' ``Face the Nation.''

Frist also said he didn't think a court order is needed before eavesdropping, under the program, occurs. ``Does it have to be thrown over to the courts? I don't think so. I personally don't think so,'' he said.

Republican lawmakers have proposed amending the 1978 FISA law to permit domestic eavesdropping without seeking first court permission. This is in response to public reaction to the news that the Bush administration has been monitoring electronic communications between American citizens on domestic soil and alleged terrorist suspects overseas. Bush ordered the National Security Agency to conduct the surveillance without obtaining first warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which exists to grant such warrants. The GOP seeks to remove all questions about the legality of Bush's spying program by eliminating the warrant requirement from FISA.

The Bush administration has been caught between two intellectually inconsistent positions in defending its actions:

• Congress already authorized Bush to spy on American citizens without a warrant



• Bush does not require the permission of congress to spy on American citizens without a warrant

As disturbing as it is for the majority leader of the senate to assert the president's right to circumvent American law, it is encouraging to see him opposing an effort to place the cover of authority over Bush's illegal actions.

This is a case of someone doing the right thing for all the wrong reasons.