shays spouts what seems to me to be gobbledy gook in greenwich

Shays stays the course


By Michael DinanStaff WriterJanuary 22, 2006Despite calls from some constituents to check what they called President Bush's abuse of power, Rep. Christopher Shays yesterday defended the commander in chief's order of warrantless spying on Americans and supported the soon-to-expire Patriot Act.Shays, a 10-term incumbent Republican, also called for Congress to debate the president's constitutional powers during war time as he hosted a lively discussion with more than 150 Greenwich residents packed into the Town Hall meeting room."I believe the president has very significant constitutional powers as commander in chief. That's what I believe," Shays said. "And I believe the Consti-tution trumps laws and if you don't believe in the constitutional powers of the commander in chief, you have to change the Constitution in order to limit. You can't change the laws to limit a president who has constitutional powers, and that's the debate we need to have."Several attendees said Bush has abused his power by circumventing the courts and ordering the National Security Agency to spy on Americans as part of the war on terror."The question is: Should the president be allowed to ignore the law and spy on Americans without oversight from the courts or Congress? And this is what really scares me," said John Howard, 40, of central Greenwich."And for the Republicans in the room, if you're not scared with Bush doing this, I want you to imagine President Hillary in five years," Howard added, drawing laughter from the overwhelmingly graying crowd...........

but then shays says........

...........Following Bush's recent example, Shays conceded that he was wrong in supporting the invasion of Iraq on the premise that the country had weapons of mass destruction. He also admitted that he grossly underestimated the cost of the war in Iraq........

then he goes back to the gobbledy gook