Real blowback against Bush's violations of the law

The New York Times, whose complicity in the illegal NSA wiretaps clouds the validity of its position, at least steps up strongly will an editorial with real teeth in it. Quotables:

"Americans expected some reasonable and carefully measured trade-offs between security and civil liberties. They trusted their elected leaders to follow long-established democratic and legal principles and to make any changes in the light of day. But President Bush had other ideas. He secretly and recklessly expanded the government's powers in dangerous and unnecessary ways that eroded civil liberties and may also have violated the law."

"This White House has cried wolf so many times on the urgency of national security threats that it has lost all credibility. But we have learned the hard way that Mr. Bush's team cannot be trusted to find the boundaries of the law, much less respect them."

The Washington Post editorial on Bush's spying is very nearly as unambiguous:

"The tools of foreign intelligence are not consistent with a democratic society. Americans interact with their own government through the enforcement of law. And in those limited instances in which Americans become intelligence targets, FISA exists to make sure that the agencies are not targeting people for improper reasons but have sufficient evidence that Americans are actually operating as foreign agents. Warrantless intelligence surveillance by an executive branch unaccountable to any judicial officer -- and apparently on a large scale -- is gravely dangerous."

"Still, FISA has been the law of the land for 2 1/2 decades. To disrupt it so fundamentally, in total secret and without seeking legislative authorization, shows a profound disregard for Congress and the laws it passes."

Also in the Washington Post are two articles that question Bush's abuse of wartime powers and another challenging Congress to take action against Bush's fumbles on the constitutional rights of citizens.

Update: Now papers across the nation weigh in and it's not good for Bush:
Kansas City Star, Denver Post, LA Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, St. Petersburg Times.