The Biggest "I Told You So" Ever

Readers from way back (and even more recent readers) will remember that I predicted that once Obama was in office, all of a sudden wiretaps would be a good thing, necessary to protect the country. Well, here’s your proof:

The Obama administration is again invoking government secrecy in defending the Bush administration’s wiretapping program, this time against a lawsuit by AT&T customers who claim federal agents illegally intercepted their phone calls and gained access to their records.

Disclosure of the information sought by the customers, “which concerns how the United States seeks to detect and prevent terrorist attacks, would cause exceptionally grave harm to national security,” Justice Department lawyers said in papers filed Friday in San Francisco.

(snip)

The Justice Department said Friday that government agents monitored only communications in which “a participant was reasonably believed to be associated with al Qaeda or an affiliated terrorist organization.” But proving that the surveillance program did not sweep in ordinary phone customers would require “disclosure of highly classified NSA intelligence sources and methods,” the department said.

Can you say “flip-flop”? Obama can. In fact, he just did. Just over a year ago, the Chosen One said, in no uncertain terms, that if he was elected he’d end warrantless wiretaps. Yet here we are today. Imagine my *yawn* surprise.

I hate to beat a dead horse, but I told you so. Just about every right-wing blogger did, as a matter of fact.

Mind you, it wasn’t a hard prediction to make. It was a fairly easy call. See, for Democrat and liberal politicians , the problem wasn’t what Bush and the Republicans were doing, it was the fact that it wasn’t the Democrats doing it. The “culture of corruption”, the wiretaps, the war, etc. None of these would be a problem had Bubba Clinton still been in office or had Algore won in 2000. But they sure as hell are a problem when it’s a Republican in office. Pure partisan politics for political gain, regardless of the consequences.

For the record, I’m GLAD I was right on this. I really hope Obama does — and continues to do — the right thing, here. When it comes to the war on terror and national security, it looks like he’s at least trying to make the right decisions and not pander to the anti-war, terrorist-loving far left. Time will tell, though…he still has an entire term to serve, after all.

(Cross-posted from my site, Liberty Pundit)

camojack says:

April 7, 2009 at 8:41 am

IIRC, John Kerry was called “Flipper” when he ran for Prez…

alchemist says:

April 7, 2009 at 9:52 am

To be fair, there’s a number of ‘lefties’ who aren’t happy about this either. Glenn Greenwald has written about 5 columns on this already. I’m willing to give him more time on this, but I’m not thrilled, and (if I had any power) would push to kill this program.

So, no change in my mind.

Carlos says:

April 7, 2009 at 10:48 am

Like has been pointed out, a rose by any other name…

When he closes down Gitmo and moves the detainees to some other (as yet unnamed) holding facility not in the territorial U.S. but with the same function as Gitmo, will we hear cries about shutting it down? At least as loud as the wailings about Bush the Evil?

Don’t count on it. Things like that to a lunatic are only evil if done by a Republican, not a donkey savior.

Brian says:

April 7, 2009 at 10:55 am

Yes, you are correct, there are a couple who are still going on about it. But the point was that if we only elected Obama, these wiretaps, the war, etc., would end in an instant. I should have been more clear, though, in that I meant the politicians (I edited the post to make that clear).