That system is being severely undermined.
Over the past few days, the President twisted arms and the Democrats who control Congress and Senate caved and passed a bill that "would eviscerate the Fourth Amendment" and "does violence to the Constitution of the United States" (the latter on the authority of the Speaker of the House).
They also inserted a sunset clause, so this legislation will come up for renewal in six months. At that time they (supposedly) plan to have a proper debate, and presumably do the right thing.
But instead of going into recess, why don't they extend the session and do that now? Ironically, forcing an extension of the session till they gave him a Bill was one of the threats the President supposedly used. To the Senate and Congress, their scheduled vacation is more important than the Constitution they took a sacred oath to uphold!
Glenn Greenwald wrote (Democrats' responsibility for Bush radicalism)
Examine virtually every Bush scandal and it increasingly bears the mark not merely of Democratic capitulation, but Democratic participation. In August of 2006, the Supreme Court finally asserted the first real limit on Bush's radical executive power theories in Hamdan, only for Congress, months later, to completely eviscerate those minimal limits -- and then go far beyond -- by enacting the grotesque Military Commissions Act with the support of substantial numbers of Democrats. What began as a covert and illegal Bush interrogation and detention program became the officially sanctioned, bipartisan policy of the United States.
I took what I think the next logical step in this line of thought in this dailykos diary.
In a couple of years of being around that forum, this is only the third diary I've attempted, so it should tell you about my state of mind - angry, angry, angry.
