Heads explode...

in the Justice Dept. due to excessively high levels of cognitive dissonance.

Apparently, Bu$hCo was for FISA while it was against it. White House Dismissed '02 Surveillance Proposal (emphasis mine):

During separate appearances this week, Gonzales and Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the deputy intelligence chief, also said the legal requirements under FISA made it difficult for intelligence agents to act quickly enough in many cases.

Under the NSA program, Hayden said, 'the trigger is quicker and a bit softer than it is for a FISA warrant.'

During Senate debate over DeWine's amendment in July 2002, James A. Baker, the Justice Department's counsel for intelligence policy, said in a statement that the Bush administration did not support the proposal 'because the proposed change raises both significant legal and practical issues.'

Baker said it was 'not clear cut' whether the proposal would 'pass constitutional muster,' and 'we could potentially put at risk ongoing investigations and prosecutions' if the amendment was later struck down by the courts. He also said Justice had been using FISA aggressively and played down the notion that the probable cause standard was too high.

It's going to be an uphill climb for the administration pukes now that they have to argue against their own record arguing before congress that the DeWine amendment (which congress rejected), which was less agressive than the (clearly illegal) program that the administration was at the time secretly implementing, was probably unconstitutional. Now, they argue that they just didn't want a public debate because it might expose the secret program?! It is becoming increasingly clear that the administration conducted an outright deception of congress which itself is illegal.

Glenn Greenwald has more, as does Knight-Ridder.