Trust them

Good for Qwest.

Trying to put pressure on Qwest, NSA representatives pointedly told Qwest that it was the lone holdout among the big telecommunications companies. It also tried appealing to Qwest's patriotic side: In one meeting, an NSA representative suggested that Qwest's refusal to contribute to the database could compromise national security, one person recalled.

In addition, the agency suggested that Qwest's foot-dragging might affect its ability to get future classified work with the government. Like other big telecommunications companies, Qwest already had classified contracts and hoped to get more.

Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest's lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused.

The NSA's explanation did little to satisfy Qwest's lawyers. "They told (Qwest) they didn't want to do that because FISA might not agree with them," one person recalled. For similar reasons, this person said, NSA rejected Qwest's suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general's office. A second person confirmed this version of events.

But preznit assured us they were only interested in listening in on calls from overseas "terrorists."

If Rove wants to make this the issue to "rally the base," I'd say "bring it on."

And, as Kevin Drum notes, this should make the Hayden confirmation hearings pretty lively.

On a different but related note, Luttig resigned after being snookered by the Bush administration.

But remember, should the Dems regain either House it would damage the comity of national politics and DC cocktail parties if investigations were to be conducted.