The lead editorial in Thursday's New York Times begins by stating that the "wrenching debate in the 1970's over the abuse of presidential power" gave rise to FISA and the Senate Select Intelligence Committee as effective, bipartisan remedies. These endured for a quarter century, says The Times, "until George W. Bush and Dick Cheney left FISA in tatters and the Senate Select Committee on its deathbed in just five years."
Won't quote the whole thing here, but jump the bump for the most damning paragraph, and the link to the whole diatribe.
My favorite paragraph in the editorial is this:
It's breathtakingly cynical. Faced with a president who is almost certainly breaking the law, the Senate sets up a panel to watch him do it and calls that control. This new Senate plan is being presented as a way to increase the supervision of intelligence gathering while giving the spies needed flexibility. But it does no such thing.
The link:
NYT Editorial: The Death of the Intelligence Panel