Bush admin turned down legislation making parts of NSA spying legal

This has been bouncing around since Glenn Greenwald first put it up on Tuesday. The WaPo picked it up this morning.

The Bush administration rejected a 2002 Senate proposal that would have made it easier for FBI agents to obtain surveillance warrants in terrorism cases, concluding that the system was working well and that it would likely be unconstitutional to lower the legal standard.

This is a pretty big blow to the Bush administration's legal arguments justifying warrantless spying.

(Also, notice the day after McClellan and the President made a big stink that this should not be called "domestic" spying to the incredulity of the press pool, the WaPo is pointedly calling it "a secret program of warrantless domestic eavesdropping by the National Security Agency." The NYtimes is still using "domestic" as well in captions, but not in articles. Let's see if the NYTimes has caved to McClellan.)

Oh, and the WaPo isn't the only one picking up this story. Add Knight Ridder (also still using domestic) and the LATimes (also domestic), both with probably a more direct description of the conflict. LATimes not online yet, link to Kos)