Yes, it happened this evening . . . Keith Olbermann, Obama lapdog & apologist extraordinaire, criticized Obama and his “Justice” Department. Seems his administration has taken steps that are more extreme than Bush 43 ‘s position on wiretapping and a citizen’s right to sue the government.

We all remember how outraged the left and the MSM media were about Bush’s tactics and the wide scale intrusion into our right for privacy? This evening in the irony of ironies it was Olbermann bringing this issue to the forefront. For the first 10 minutes of his program he was the Keith of old … performing like an actual journalist.  Alas, that didn’t last very long . . .  one segment that’s all!

To the point:

The Obama administration is defending, yet again, the wide ranging illegal wire tapping program of the Bush administration despite fiercely criticizing this policy during the Presidential campaign. His Justice Department is advancing the usual circular logic argument of “national security” in defending the government against a suit brought on behalf of AT&T customers who suspect that their communications were illegally intercepted by federal authorities.

As detailed in the WSJ:

The Obama Justice Department has adopted a legal stance identical to, if not more aggressive than, the Bush version. It argues that the court-forced disclosure of the surveillance programs would cause “exceptional harm to national security” by exposing intelligence sources and methods. Last Friday the Ninth Circuit denied the latest emergency motion to dismiss, again kicking matters back to Judge Walker.

In court documents filed hours later, Justice argues that the decision to release classified information “is committed to the discretion of the Executive Branch, and is not subject to judicial review. Moreover, the Court does not have independent power . . . to order the Government to grant counsel access to classified information when the Executive Branch has denied them such access.” The brief continues that federal judges are “ill-equipped to second-guess the Executive Branch.”

That’s about as pure an assertion of Presidential power as they come, and we’re beginning to wonder if the White House has put David Addington, Mr. Cheney’s chief legal aide, on retainer.

Olbermann was loathe to admit this evening, in his discussion with George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, that Obama’s team at “Justice” is going too far. Quoting Keith, “ the Obama Administration is flat out dead wrong on this! Right?”

To which Turley replied, “The Bush team is bringing out its Mission Accomplished banner … this is the ultimate victory for the Bush officials . . . they have Barack Obama adopting the same extremist argument . . . in fact exceeding the argument made by President Bush!” Further in the conversation Turley said, ” You can no longer suggest that Obama is advancing the civil liberties & privacy interests that he promised to advance.” To which I wanted to say, “No kidding Dick Tracey!”

It appears that Turley has finally gotten “it”! What’s “it”?

Those of us who have opposed Obama from the very beginning saw this coming. You see, Team Obama consider themselves to be “good” people . . . unlike those “Bad” Bush people; so when they do bad things its OK.

How’s that line in the Ron Howard movie on Nixon go, ” When the President does it, its not illegal!”