He's not "confused"

He's lying.

It’s deeply unfortunate that, after all of these months of debate and discussion, the president is still this confused.

The Bush administration wants to extend amnesty to telecommunications companies that appear to have broken the law. I say “appear” because the telecoms can have their day in court, presenting evidence, and defending their decisions. Bush believes Congress should stop ongoing legal proceedings, and doing so is important enough to hold the nation’s surveillance laws hostage. (As Matt Yglesias put it, “It’s almost as if the Republican Party exists to serve the interests of large business enterprises and very wealthy individuals, and tends to use national security and cultural anxieties as a kind of political theater aimed at securing votes so that they can better pursue their real agenda of enriching the wealthy and powerful.”)

The notion, though, that telecoms would no longer cooperate with intelligence agencies is just foolish. Two things would happen without telecom immunity: 1) the companies and their teams of lawyers would defend their decisions in a fair trial; and 2) the companies would continue to cooperate because the administration (and any future administration) would get a warrant.

To hear Bush tell it, telecoms would start blowing off court orders. That’s simply not realistic — the telecoms and their lawyers are well aware of the fact that refusing to honor a warrant would bring rather drastic legal consequences. With or without amnesty for previous criminal conduct, the companies will have to cooperate — they won’t have a choice.