Spypartisanship

Glenn Greenwald has once again brought his combination of excellence and exasperation to bear on the subject of warrantless wiretaps, this time hammering at the two false narratives currently in play for the 2006 election cycle; namely that FISA somehow prevents the government from spying on terrorists, and that most Americans are on favor of warrantless wiretapping.

Greenwald doesn't come out and say it, but I suspect that the two falsehoods are interrelated. If you accept the premise of the first, then the second flows naturally from it, since most Americans are indeed in favor of spying on terrorists.

With all that in mind, the next time the media or Republicans start spouting these bogus talking points, I want to hear Democrats point out that the difference between the parties is not that Republicans want to spy on al Qaeda and Democrats don't, but that Democrats only want to spy on al Qaeda.

I think that might just be simple enough to work.