A constitutional history buff

Abu Al schooling the Senate Judiciary yesterday.

Previous presidents, Gonzales argued, have "authorized the warrantless surveillance of the enemy during wartime" in ways "far more sweeping than the narrowly targeted terrorist surveillance program." He cited presidents Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt and noted that Gen. George Washington authorized the interception of letters during the Revolutionary War.

Besides this argument being neither here nore there, as Matt Yglesias writes, and besides Al the Torturer's overall ignorance of the Constitution he's sworn to defend, who cares what George Washington "authorized?" Washington wasn't president at the time. He wasn't elected to anything. And there was no U.S. Constitution at the time.

Calling Dr. DeLong. Calling Dr. DeLong.