Bush now saying members of Congress "reviewed" the domestic spying program and determined it was appropriate - oh really?

That's what the NYT has Bush quoted as saying in Monday's papers.

When asked about John Ashcroft being reluctant to sign off on the domestic spying program, and Ashcroft's top deputy outright refusing to sign off, Bush gave this response:

Asked Sunday about internal opposition, President Bush said: "This program has been reviewed, constantly reviewed, by people throughout my administration. And it still is reviewed.

"Not only has it been reviewed by Justice Department officials, it's been reviewed by members of the United States Congress," he said.

For Bush to respond to a question, about administration officials opposing the domestic spying program, by saying that members of Congress "reviewed" the program, that means Bush is saying the members of Congress looked at the program in depth, investigated it, and then gave it their seal of approval, AND that Bush would have had to kill the program if the members of Congress did not approve.

But we already know that to be untrue.

Some key members of Congress like former Senator Graham (D-FL), the former head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, weren't briefed at all, so he didn't "review" it. Other Senate leaders either only heard a quick cursory mention of the program in a longer briefing (Daschle and Reid), hardly what one would call a "review," or when they got their briefing they objected quite strongly (Rockefeller) - so even were he to have "reviewed," he didn't "approve."

To say that these members of Congress "reviewed" the program is an outright lie. You don't "review" a program by sitting in a long briefing on another topic and then suddenly someone mentions briefly that this program exists. That's not a "review" of the program. Having your staff do their own investigation and write you a memo on the topic, a memo that asks you for an up or down decision on the program, that's a "review."

And for Bush to imply that Congress approved of this program is also an outright lie. Graham couldn't have approved of something he didn't know, Rockefeller clearly disapproved and told Cheney directly, and there's no evidence to suggest that either Daschle or Reid gave their blessing.

What's more, Bush claimed that just as DOJ "reviewed" the program, so did members of Congress. But DOJ had to sign off on the program, or it would have been killed - we know that Ashcroft held the program up several months, and we know that the White House couldn't proceed with the program because Ashcroft's deputy wouldn't sign off. So a DOJ "review" meant having the power to kill the program. From what we know, Congress was never asked to sign off on the program, lest it be killed - quite the contrary. At least one senior member of Congress complained, the current head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and his complaint fell on deaf ears while the program proceeded anyway. For Bush to liken the DOJ "review" to Congress' "review" is again an outright lie.

And finally, if by "review" Bush simply means mentioning the program's existence in a classified meeting, as he did with certain members of Congress, a meeting where the person hearing about the program has no power whatsoever to stop it, then why should we even care if "people throughout my administration," as Bush now says, "reviewed" this program? Who cares how many people in the administration Bush told about the program if it was the same "review" Congress had - namely, a cursory mention of the program, and the person being told had no power to object and stop the program?

Again, that's not a review - that's a dictator telling his powerless Potemkin advisers, cabinet, and Congress what he's already going to do, with them or without them.

Bush is lying and the media needs to hold him accountable for his lies, rather than just repeating his lies - like the NYT just did - without countering them in the next paragraph with the facts.