Or would be, if there were any such thing. Watch her spin straw into gold, working from Dan Eggen's WaPo article. It turns out, that even from the barebones of the chronology, and even accepting what the Republicans think is legal, Bush was operating in defiance of the law for at least nine days. (Of course, if you believe that the entire warrantless surveillance program was illegal, that means means that Bush committed at least 43 felonies, one of each time he putatively reauthorized the act.

Apparently, Shooter and his bum boy, Fred Fielding, are going to run out the clock with the The Fourth Branch Of Government Theory, closely allied to, indeed an enabler of, the Theory Of We Get To Do Whatever The Fuck We Want, under which Shooter is doing whatever the fuck he wants. Apparently, the Dems don't like this, and are threatening to shake their tiny fists and stamp their tiny feet. Good for them, but doesn't the Constitution demand a more robust defense?

Thank God Hillary and Obama are taking point on this, or soon we won't have a Constitution left. Oh, wait....

NOTE Is there method to Shooter's madness? Note this part of the letter. Shooter's wearing his legislative hat, for now:

In the performance of legislative functions, the Vice President respects the legal privileges afforded to the Constitution by the Senate, such as preservation of the confidentiality of a session with closed doors over which a Vice President can preside.

As is consistent with the institutional interests of the Senate, the Office of The Vice President construes the subpoena as seeking responsive records possessed by the Office of the Vice President in the performance of the Vice President's assigned executive functions, but not in the performance of his legislative functions. As a practical matter, the Senate records could not be expected to contain any responsive records.

Now, a real lawyer like Marcy would be needed to translate this rawther opaque language.

But it reminds me immediately of the Spector's statement, which Leahy called him out on, that Shooter told him they weren't "allowed" to issue a subpoena.

Did Shooter tell this to Spector wearing his legislative hat? And, if so, what else did Cheney tell the Senate wearing his legislative hat? What, for instance, did he tell the intel committees? What did he tell the Gang of Eight? What did he tell Reid and Pelosi? Is the curious silence of the Democratic leadership on FISA and their reprehensible passage of the Orwellian "Protect America" act explained by their complicity in something Shooter sucked them into?