Under pressure from whom?

I laughed -- literally -- upon reading the first five words of yesterday's New York Times coverage of the Democrats' shameless collaboration in further suspending the Constitution: "Under pressure from President Bush...."

Under pressure from whom?

But I imagine "whom" laughed harder than I. Because "whom" had hornswoggled and bamboozled them again. "Whom" had pulled off another good one. "Whom" still has the decisive victors of the last election believing they lost. "Whom" is down to a political base of his wife, his dog, a few Bundist Christians and a scattering of Skinheads -- yet he could bend Democrats to his will, just by shouting "Boo!"

And the burlesque didn't stop there.

"Civil liberties and privacy advocates and a majority of Democrats said the [approved changes in the terrorist surveillance program] could allow the monitoring of virtually any calls, e-mails or other communications going overseas that originate in the United States, without a [warrant], if the government deems the recipient to be the target of a U.S. probe."