Clouding the issue

Think Progress comments today that, according to a short back-and-forth on this morning's Fox News Sunday, "Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said Bush's warrantless domestic wiretapping program is illegal."

Well... yes and no. To me, while it certainly would appear that the Senator started down that road, the more revealing aspect of Mr. McCain's stand on this issue came immediately afterwards when he stated:

I know of no member of Congress, frankly, who, if the administration came and said here's why we need this capability, that they wouldn't get it.

There's an insidious, chilling implication in those words, that I think indicates McCain's tacit support of the whole warrantless wiretap program, illegal or not. Is he not stating that the only serious problem here is that the Administration bypassed Congress, and that if Mr. Bush and Company would just ask, they'd surely get what they want?

Let's not allow the rush to add a few "R"s to the list of "illegal spying opponents" to obscure the obvious fact that those same "R"s haven't exactly moved their belongings to our side of the yard just yet. Nor are they stepping up and saying what clearly and simply needs to be said - that this President has betrayed the American people - so let's not give them too much credit too soon, in an effort to show some "target demograhic" that we've got the "right players" on our roster.