At the American Spectator’s site appears an excellent article by Adam White and Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, on the national-security surveillance program of Franklin Roosevelt. The authors cogently argue that practically every constitutional argument now ginned up by the Democrats against George W. Bush’s NSA surveillance program was met and turned aside by FDR. White and Gartenstein-Ross turn this historical precedent to good effect, but when they argue that there is no greater liberal hero than Roosevelt, they do not pause to give a sidelong glance at the one wartime constitutional issue where today’s liberals break with their idol: the internment of the Japanese-Americans. So the question becomes, will liberals respond by rejecting the Rooseveltian precedent here too, on surveillance, or will they simply ignore the evidence of his disagreement with them? And if they do acknowledge and reject the precedent, how much more of Roosevelt’s iron determination to win his war will today’s left heave overboard in their opposition to a president who wants to win ours?