How stupid are conservatives? I'm glad you asked.

It's been hard to tear one's eyes away from the NSA/wiretapping fiasco happening down south, and part of the appeal is watching the right wing -- ostensibly the Law and Order party -- pooh-poohing the notion that the Bush administration should be hamstrung in its Global War on Terror™ by anything as quaint as actual, you know, laws.

To demonstrate the jaw-dropping stupidity (or dishonesty, I still haven't decided) of the Right's leading lights, I'll make a simple observation. I'm betting that you readers -- even those who've followed this story only sporadically -- know that, under the U.S.'s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the government can start eavesdropping immediately, and apply for a warrant afterwards.

You knew that, didn't you? I'll bet you read that somewhere. Come on, admit it, you were aware that FISA warrants could be granted retroactively. Yes, you did. That's good. Because, apparently, Powerline's "Assrocket" didn't know any such thing.

That's right. John Hinderaker, of Time's "Blog of the Year" and a lawyer on top of that, is apparently so fucking ignorant that he wasn't aware of this, as Glenn Greenwald explains over here.

Read the whole piece to appreciate that Hinderaker is either unfathomably stupid, or just a run-of-the-mill right-wing liar. (Not like it matters but, personally, I vote for stupid.)

And appreciate that Hinderaker is not just some no-name, neo-con wank. No, he's one of the leading ligits in the conservative blogosphere. And he's that clueless.

Can a position in the Bush administration be far off for Assrocket? I'm thinking head of Homeland Security would be perfect. I'm sure he'd do a heckuva job.