Pot meets kettle as Obama calls Snowden a 'self-important narcissist'

Back when President Obama was a wide-eyed candidate, he used to attack George Bush at every opportunity. One of his favorite targets was the surveillance state he said was created by the Patriot Act. In those days, he claimed that Big Brother was out of control, that the Patriot Act was an affront to the Constitution, and that - were he President - the whole thing would be brought under control.

“That means no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens,” he said in 2007. “No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime.” How times have changed. Under his administration the Patriot Act has been strengthened, the programs it created have been expanded, and the surveillance state he once lamented has grown exponentially. According to a new report in the New York Times, Obama was perfectly happy to let all this happen. His predecessor was gone, and there was little reason to bother with undoing the transgressions of the Bush era. Then Edward Snowden appeared. Suddenly, the political issue that Obama had so deftly used against George Bush and the GOP had come back to bite him. It was his watch, his NSA, and his set of secret courts. They were terrible monstrosities when he was a candidate but, as President, he'd done absolutely nothing to rein them in.

---

So, did he take this moment to reflect and say "Yep, I should have kept my promise to protect the 4th Amendment" or did he choose another course?

Feeling little pressure to curb the security agencies, Mr. Obama largely left them alone until Mr. Snowden began disclosing secret programs last year. Mr. Obama was angry at the revelations, privately excoriating Mr. Snowden as a self-important narcissist who had not thought through the consequences of his actions. He was surprised at the uproar that ensued, advisers said, particularly that so many Americans did not trust him, much less trust the oversight provided by the intelligence court and Congress. As more secrets spilled out, though, aides said even Mr. Obama was chagrined. They said he was exercised to learn that the mobile phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany was being tapped.

True to form, rather than admit that he'd shirked his promise to restore some Constitutional balance, he got angry at the guy who'd made him look bad. By putting Obama's hypocrisy on display, Snowden had crossed the only line Barack Obama seems to care about. How dare someone come along and point their finger at the chosen one? The fact that Obama thinks Snowden is a "self-important narcissist" may be the most unintentionally ironic thing the New York Times has ever printed. I've been open about the fact that I think the Patriot Act was a major, major, misstep for the Bush administration. I have no problem with keeping the nation safe, but you can't shred the Constitution in order to claim you're protecting it. If you were unable to imagine that the Patriot Act would engender exactly the kind of abuses that have come to pass, you weren't paying much attention. However, Bush's lack of vision doesn't excuse the fact that Obama has taken a largely unconstitutional ball and run with it. Now, feet to the fire, Obama is about to address the situation.

More than six years later, the onetime constitutional lawyer is now the commander in chief presiding over a surveillance state that some of his own advisers think has once again gotten out of control. On Friday, he will give another speech, this time at the Justice Department defending government spying even as he adjusts it to address a wave of public concern over civil liberties.

If the New York Times is right, Obama's Friday speech will be more a defense of his programs than an effort to bring them under control. Over at the Washington Post, they're a little more generous, but they still don't seem to have high hopes for the address.

President Obama on Friday is expected to announce some new limits on the NSA program that collects billions of Americans’ phone records, but he will call on Congress to help determine the program’s future, according to current and former officials familiar with the administration’s plans. Obama has concluded that the program has value as a counterterrorism tool, the officials said, but is also confronting difficult political realities.

Super. It would appear that we're in for either defensive posturing or a politically motivated pass-the-buck move. Given his track record, we should expect nothing less. Still, it would be nice if - just once - members of his party would hold Obama to the same standard to which they held George W. Bush. I'm not holding my breath.