Wise words on the NSA surveillance story

A Betsy Newmark post reminds us “I really don’t know” can be very wise words:

I haven't blogged about the whole NSA surveillance story, because, frankly, the combination of not knowing exactly how this procedure worked along with not having the legal background to understand all the laws and precedents seems to dictate that I shouldn't be pronouncing on this. In fact, I wish that most non-lawyers would just calm down before they start pronouncing this some terrible expansion of presidential power. And given, that we don't know much about whom was eavesdropped on and for how long and if a warrant was sought at some point after the fact, it seems that we have ignorance compounded in some of the discussion on TV and on blogs.

Betsy says the post that’s been most helpful to her is George Washington University Law School Professor Orin Kerr’s at the Volokh Conspiracy.

She also links to National Review’s White House correspondent Byron York who details problems the administration faced when using the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Betsy ends with a summary and link to commentary by political pundit
John McIntyre of Realclearpolitics.com along with some comments of her own.

Betsy and John agree Democrats who see political advantage for themselves in the surveillance debate don’t realize their party doesn’t do very well when it jumps into the National Defense and War on Terror end of the pool.

Read the whole thing. It’s a great post.