Who needs a statute? Gonzales says they'll do what they want

Hey, once you start ignoring the rule of law, what the heck. Thanks to Atrios for finding the money quote from Gonzales:

QUESTION: Attorney General Gonzales, if the Senate does not reauthorize this provision for the Patriot Act, does the president have the authority under Article 2 and the authorization of use of force to give the go-ahead for these procedures on his own?

GONZALES: What I will say is we continue to have hope that these provisions will be reauthorized.

To the extent that they're not reauthorized, we will look at the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies throughout the government to see what authorities do exist. And we will do what we can do under existing authorities to continue to protect America.

That means, we don't care, we'll just assume we have the authority anyway. Those pesky laws and the constitution just get in the way.