Tu Quoque: The Inevitable Clenis Edition
By The latest straw being grasped at by those who seek to defend the legality of the illegal will be one of the most pathetic moves in the wingnut playbook: “Bill Clinton did it too!” This seems barely worth taking the time to refute, but two quick points:
- Any non-hack will note, first of all, that whatever Clinton said he didn’t actually enact a wiretapping policy that conflicted with FISA. The distinction between action and words is rather crucial.
- More importantly, who the hell cares? If Clinton actually said that he had the inherent authority to order warrantless searches, then he was wrong. Again, Bush’s actions aren’t any more legal just because some other President said so. It won’t be surprising to see this argument trotted out by unprincipled conservatives and fake libertarians, because they’re projecting: since they care more about partisan politics than civil liberties, they assume that Bush’s critics do too. Well, speak for yourself.