As she shouted out with glee….last night on NPR’s All Things Considered, legal reporter Nina Totenberg insisted Bush was not getting much support from “conservative legal scholars” on his surveillance powers. Before she allowed a “tepid” expression of support from Doug Kmiec, she touted Bruce Fein, an assistant deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration. (He comes on about three minutes into the report here.)

“I was someone who defended strong presidential powers. We do need a strong presidency. But we don’t want a presidency that elevates itself into kingship, even stronger than that of George III. And I have opined that if the president does not renounce this rather preposterous claim of inherent authority to run roughshod over every provision of the Constitution under the banner of fighting a war, Congress needs to consider an express statute reining him in, or even impeaching him.”

Fein does not opine with an I-word here.