I’ve been arguing, including in the current issue of NR, that the NSA “scandal” is way overblown, mainly because this dispute is procedural, not substantive. That is, the real mainstream of America (as opposed to the fringe portrayed as the mainstream by the fringy mainstream media) wants al Qaeda monitored (at the very least). The real mainstream also recognizes not only that this monitoring must include surveillance inside the U.S., but that domestic monitoring is the most important because “inside the U.S.” is exactly where al Qaeda is trying to hit us. Hard. Again.

As long as that monitoring is being done, few people will care passionately about whether POTUS is doing it on the basis of his own constitutional authority or by making successful applications to the FISA court.

While I’m always queasy about polling data, Dick Morris contends in the NYPost today that current polling data bear this theory out. According to Morris:

The Fox News poll of Jan. 11 asked voters whether the president “should have the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor electronic communications of suspected terrorists without getting warrants, even if one end of the communication is in the United States?” By 58 percent to 36 percent, the answer was “yes.” Indeed, 42 percent of the nation’s Democrats agreed that the president should have this power.
The poll also tells us that Americans attribute the absence of terrorist attacks over the past 41/2 years to our government’s efforts to protect us. Asked if the fact that there has been no major terror attack since 9/11 was due to “security measures working” or to “no attack having been planned” by terrorists, Americans credited government efforts by 46 percent (to 22 percent for the terrorists, with another 20 percent saying both factors contributed).
Other results: Some 61 percent — including a majority of the Democrats — said they’d be willing to surrender some of their own privacy to help prevent terror attacks. Respondents support renewal of the Patriot Act by 57 percent to 31 percent. (Even Democrats only oppose renewal by 40-47.)
And those who called attention to the NSA policy of warrant-less wiretaps are called “traitors” by 50 percent of the voters and “whistleblowers” by only 27 percent. Democrats opted for “traitors” by 42 percent to 34 percent.
In other words, Ann Coulter represents the Democratic mainstream better than Al Gore on this one! [Emphasis in original.]

Of course these numbers could change. But they are much less likely to as long as the administration continues to be aggressive in making the case for its actions. The American people are convinced that there really is a war going on – a war over which there hovers a profound domestic threat. As there is no evidence behind the hysteria about purported domestic “spying” (the Left’s term of choice to suggest that sensible investigative measures are really a Big Brother snooping operation unrelated to national security), the President won’t be penalized for using his power to protect American lives.