No end to the hubris: Gonzales Suggests Legal Basis for Domestic Eavesdropping

These guys are playing it so close and so coy that even a reliable GOP toady like James Sensenbrenner calls it “stonewalling.”

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales suggested on Thursday for the first time that the president might have the legal authority to order wiretapping without a warrant on communications between Americans that occur exclusively within the United States.”I’m not going to rule it out,” Mr. Gonzales said when asked about that possibility at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

The attorney general made his comments, which critics said reflected a broadened view of the president’s authority, as President Bush offered another strong defense of his decision to authorize the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without warrants on international calls and e-mail messages to or from the United States.