Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

December 17, 2005

Bush Admits to Ordering Domestic Spying

President Bush "acknowledged that he had ordered the National Security Agency to conduct an electronic eavesdropping program without first obtaining warrants," the New York Times reports. Bush said he would continue the highly classified program because it was "a vital tool in our war against the terrorists."

The Washington Post notes lawmakers of both parties "called for hearings and issued condemnations" when news of the program broke yesterday in a page one New York Times piece.

Bush remarks today, in an unusal live broadcast of his weekly radio address, was intended to rebut senators who used the news as justification to vote down the renewal of the Patriot Act.

Update: Think Progress notes that just yesterday Bush refused comment on the grounds it would harm national security. What changed in the last 24 hours?

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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