They attack Americans because they hate our freedom

Three sources confirmed to Web reporter Doug Thompson that when President Bush met with Congressional leaders last month to discuss renewing USAPATRIOT, the following exchange took place over concerns about civil liberties:

“I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

If this is true - and according to Thompson, at least three people who were there say it is true - remind me again who it is that hates our freedom.

Claire Wolfe and Sunni Maravillosa have posted battle-weary thoughts along the lines that Bush saying this out loud is simple confirmation of what we knew all along, and that it's the equivalent of reporting that a plane landed safely or, as Sunni aptly put it, about "the rain still being wet." It's that same weariness that led me to abandon my "Constitution in Plain English" series - after a while, the horse has died so why keep wailing on it?

Still, while it does indeed merely confirm what he (and other presidents and the Congress and the Supreme Court) have been doing for years, for a president to say out loud that he doesn't give a good goddamn about his oath of office - you know, the one where he pledges to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution" - is breathtaking.

We always knew those who hate our freedom are closer than most people realize - they just have never been so brazen about it. This is serious business, folks. We should rest our weary souls but then come back refreshed and with ideas about how to do what the president and Congress and justices refuse to do: preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.