It was said of Gen. George S. Patton that when he arrived in Normandy with the Third Army in 1944, “He attacked in all directions at once.”

Karl Rove, President George W. Bush’s political adviser, is the Gen. Patton of politics. With his boss’s approval ratings stuck at 43 percent, with his own neck grazed by a grand jury investigation into national security leaks, with a major battle looming in Congress over the president’s authorization of warrantless electronic surveillance on Americans, and with Republicans in Congress nervous about facing voters in November, Mr. Rove is doing what he always does when his president is in trouble: He is attacking in all directions at once.

He launched the first attack himself last Friday in a speech to the Republican National Committee, saying the nation faced a “ruthless enemy” that required a president and a Congress who “understand the nature of the threat and the gravity of the moment America finds itself in... President Bush and the Republican Party do. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for many Democrats.”

On Monday, Mr. Rove sent Mr. Bush out for a second assault: “Congress gave me the authority to use necessary force to protect the American people, but it didn’t prescribe the tactics,” Mr. Bush told a friendly audience at Kansas State University. “It said, ‘Mr. President, you’ve got the power to protect us, but we’re not going to tell you how.’”

As for those nervous Nellies who worry about domestic surveillance encroaching on civil liberties, Mr. Bush said two things: 1. It’s “terrorist surveillance,” not domestic surveillance, and 2. “I’m mindful of your civil liberties and so I had all kinds of lawyers review the process.”

And if that weren’t reassuring enough, Mr. Rove sent Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the former head of the National Security Agency who is now the deputy director of national intelligence, to the National Press Club to defend NSA eavesdropping. “This is focused,” the general said. “It’st’s targeted. It’s very carefully done. You shouldn’t worry.”

On Tuesday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales joined the fray, telling an audience at Georgetown University’s Law Center that “the American people are ... asking two important questions: ‘Is this program necessary?’ and ‘Is it legal?’ The answer to each is yes.”

Mr. Bush is scheduled to rejoin the battle today with a speech at NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Md. Other events are scheduled later in the week, all designed to place Democrats and recalcitrant Republicans in box: Love America? Hate terrorism? Then shut up about the wiretaps.

Someone in Congress – Republican, Democrat, doesn’t matter – must stand up and insist that the president obey the law. Congress passed the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978. The special court that it set up can issue all the warrants that intelligence agencies need as quickly as they’re needed. For Mr. Bush and his lawyers to claim otherwise is not merely arrogant, it is dangerous.

Where, exactly, do the president’s powers end?

If the first five years of the Bush administration have proved anything, it’s that when an administration official says we don’t need to worry, we need to worry.

© 2006 Saint Louis Post-Dispatch

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