The wiretaps themselves are probably not a bad thing, it is just the apparent lack of oversight.  The wiretaps are only bad if the system is mis-used.  I read a great editorial a few weeks ago about the international response to the wiretap thing -- basically the "Yurps" cannot understand why the Americans are upset about Bush about this, of all things.  In those countries and in Israel, cameras are everywhere and wiretaps are fairly routine.

I'm still very confused over the procedures that were used.  Bush didn't go through FISA, but maybe he didn't have to.  Perhaps what he did was perfectly legal, but I still would prefer independent oversight over such a use of executive power.

BTW, I disagree with the statement at the end of the article that Bush had to keep this quiet to keep the terrorists in the dark.  First, if Bush had gone through FISA it would have been kept quiet, so no alert to the terrorists.  Second, unless the terrorists are very, very stupid, then they had to know there was a good chance their phone messages would get intercepted.