There is an excellent post today by Glenn Greenwald, whose perspective on the invasion/occupation of Iraq, the Bush administration, politics and the realities of today’s conservatism, conservatives, neo-cons and Bush-cultists has crystallized over the last few weeks into an eerily prescient vision.

Here’s his latest entry on the increasingly bizarre lengths to which Republicans will go to deny reality.

The far bigger problem is that Specter’s legislation ignores the actual crux of this scandal. As I’ve pointed out many times before, the problem we are confronting is not that the Administration specifically believes that it has the power to eavesdrop without warrants in violation of the law. It does believe that, but only as a manifestation — a consequence — of a much broader and more ambitious theory that vests in George Bush the power to break Congressional laws and act even in defiance of court orders on all matters relating to national security, broadly defined.

Therefore, even if Congress were to pass a law such as Specter’s aimed specifically at this NSA program, the Administration has already made quite clear that it believes it has the power to violate that law. Alberto Gonzales told the Senators right to their faces that the Administration never bothered to seek approval from Congress to engage in wireless eavesdropping outside of FISA — and that it is unnecessary for it to do so in the future — precisely because Congress has no power to restrict what the President does.

And read the entry following that which illustrates that it isn’t only Republican politicians who are melting down.

These statements, made within a little over two months of each other, are almost identical. If anything, Buckley’s statements [link added by Tom]are a much more emphatic declaration of defeat.

When Dean stated two months ago that we were not winning in Iraq and could not win, Bush followers trotted out their common but literally deranged rhetoric of accusing anyone who opposes the war in Iraq (or Bush terrorism policies) of being a coward, of committing treason, and being a traitor to their country. Indeed, since 2002, Bush followers have been regularly accusing their political opponents who oppose that war of subversion and treason, even as a majority Americans have come to oppose the war in Iraq.

One of the great curses the Democrats have faced going into the 2006 and 2008 elections was the curse of their own words.  Too many Dems were either silent on the invasion or actively and enthusiastically supported it (Hillary/Lieberman/Cuellar et al) and the Republicans have been making it quite clear for some time now that they were salivating at the opportunity to throw Democrats’ words and actions in support of Bush policy right in their faces should they deign to try to find support with the liberal base of their party that opposes this invasion/occupation.

But now the tables are turned.  The very Republican politicians and conservative commentators and pontificators who have screamed for Howard Dean to be lynched now have to face not only their own words but the words of the man who invented modern conservativism or try to run away from the glaring discrepancies.

This is a huge opportunity for the Democrats if only they are smart enough to take advantage of it (doubtful for anyone but Dean).  It is effectively a vaccination, courtesy of the Republican reaction to the port sale to Dubai and the Buckley column (among others), against any claims by conservatives that Dems are running away from their own words.

The political party that comes out in front of this and says “we’ve learned from our mistakes and standing up for change” will reap huge benefits come election day, both this year and in 2008.  Let’s see if they are up to it.