Backhanded Compliment

So Democrats are useful.

Political opposites aligned against Bush wiretaps: "Norquist is not a party to either suit, but he has been outspoken in criticizing his party's leader. He said that he had brushed aside concerns that he was harming the president or being disloyal at a critical time.

'You need someone who is a Republican to call the president on this,' he said.

Norquist said, ironically, he was particularly concerned about the problem because the Democrats appeared to be so weak.

'For 40 years we always assumed the left would take care of our civil liberties,' he said. 'If there were problems, the Democrats were the ones who would push back. But now with a Republican Congress and a Republican in the White House, the ACLU can't get their calls returned.'

Referring to what some see as a conflict between fighting vicious terrorists and upholding all civil liberties, Norquist said: 'It's not either/or. If the president thinks he needs different tools, pass a law to get them. Don't break the existing laws.'"

Checks and balances are what the Founding Fathers intended and a paranoid despot should not be allowed or enabled to change the system. You wanted a government you could drown in a bathtub and now that it looks like it is circling the drain you realize that it wasn't what you really wanted. Hindsight is so 20/20.