If there is one thing Washington politicians can be relied upon for, its hypocrisy. Time and time again, the rival parties trade positions on issues in a game of political musical chairs. During the Bush administration, the left has played this game with increasing skill. Such skill became readily apparent when the entire Democratic party forgot that they had been calling for Saddam Hussein’s ouster for years and they also forgot claims made by every person of influence in the party from Clinton on down that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. Perhaps the Democrats really did forget or more accurately, they correctly assumed that their hypocrisy would be ignored by the press, as they sought to undermine the president.

The hypocrisy of the left with regard to issues of race and equality is readily apparent as well and has been for decades. The Democratic Party, which champions itself as the party of equality, lacks any minority representation in the upper echelons of leadership and regularly promotes programs that bind the poor to the state, like foster children, preventing them from breaking the bonds of poverty. Now it seems what’s old is new again. The left recently erupted in furry over the revelation that the NSA has been involved in domestic surveillance activity, without prior court oversight or authorization. Many leftists have expressed shocked at the revelation and openly called for investigations.

This shock as we reported Sunday, is all a game of smoke and mirrors. There is no shock. Senate Democratic Leader, Harry Reid and House Democratic Leader, Nancy Pelosi have admitted having prior knowledge of the project and have received regular briefings on the program. Only now that they see and opportunity to win political points do they express phony outrage. So is the president correct, is the use of foreign intelligence appropriate for spying on US citizens? Most assuredly not, the program appears extra-legal at best and if such forms of espionage are necessary then that should be the domain of the FBI. What’s the point of having a Bill of Rights, if our government can bypass or constitutionally protected rights on their own say so?

The inappropriate nature of the program, however, doesn’t lend support to the Democratic position, as they have been complicit in such activities for years. Under Bush’s predecessor, Clinton oversaw the expansion of the massive Echelon project, which is a massive surveillance program involving the US intelligence community, as well as those of Canada, Britain and Australia. This program initially developed to intercept Soviet communications during the Cold War was expanded in the 1990s and is used for commercial and individual surveillance. Echelon is used to eavesdrop on practically every form of electronic communication and data transmission in the world.

Democratic complicity in domestic intelligence gathering is further evidenced by the fact that both of the last two Democratic presidents authorized US intelligence to do the exactly the same thing that Bush is now being criticized for. Clinton authorized searches and surveillance of US citizens without court order and Carter, the supposed champion of human rights did the same thing during his watch. Links to the executive orders authorizing such intrusions are linked below.
http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo/eo-12949.htm
http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo12139.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-12-20-bush-skepticism_x.htm