i do not know that my post deserved such a protracted defensive reply

i was in fact agreeing with you fundamentally

i just was not aware if bloggers were aware that the sitting president said those words about the document which underpins our entire system of government

as far as making an argument for bush having little or no respect for the constitution, i can make no better argument than accurately quoting him “it’s just a god-damned piece of paper”

if this statement does not characterize his feelings for the constitution accurately, then HE should be the one explaining, not me

And “a modern nation is only as good as its founding documents” is an accurate statement that I stand behind. The documents by themselves are never enough if they’re corrupted by their leaders. Is Bush the best example, though? And if Alberto Gonzales described the Constitution as “outdated” then I disagree with him. Having no idea of the context, I’m not quite ready to throw him under the bus, either.

The same people who are jumping all over the President for trashing the Constitution have classically described it as a “living, breathing document” but that’s only when they want a liberal judiciary to mold it to their will. And on that point I agree with Judge Scalia.

The Patriot Act has its flaws, but not renewing it at all would have been a worse idea. A good chunk of it is simply using the same tools used to capture drug dealers to track terrorists, and helping different agencies share information on suspects that the previous administration made it impossible to do.

The whole nature of a democratic system is that the pendulum swings back and forth between too much government control (executive or otherwise) and too little. And the whole nature of a “checks and balances” system is that power swings back and forth between the branches.

But if you want to see the Constitution trampled on, I would argue that the Patriot Act is probably a weak example. What about the Fed? Imminent domain? Personal Income tax? Pork Barrel spending?

There are examples throughout history, none of which are the fault of the EVIL Bush administration.

And on the “piece of paper” incident. If you feel that Bush has that little respect for the document, make the argument. You probably could make a good one, given he has worked his ass off to gain more Executive Powers since 9/11. But “shredding the Constitution and the Bill of Rights”?

I would venture to believe (because I’m obviously just a mindless automaton that automatically agrees with everything that a Republican does) that Bush sincerely views his actions as helping to better protect the country.

Maybe he’s wrong, but I don’t have the same “EVIL NEOCON” lens to look through as some do.

When this conversation took place, he had already been elected to his second term, so it wasn’t really politically motivated, especially given the fact that the ones counselling him were GOP leaders who were saying that it might make conservatives mad at him (especially after the stupid Harriet Miers nonsense).

There are plenty of things that I have disagreed with this administration on (immigration and controlling spending being the two biggest) but the Patriot Act is not one of them.

But good effort using my words against me…I’m all for it. However, your time might be better spent arguing the case against the Patriot Act (or the particular provisions that you disagreed with, if you feel that’s relevant), than repeating a third hand story about a 8 second snippet of a conversation, that every blogger on the Internet has beaten to death for the past year and a half.

I do not have “faith” in any administration, though. My faith, politically, lies in those documents, so we’re in agreement on that at least.