"leaders, go out in public and express intense indignation over the fact that the privacy of their citizens is being systematically breached, and genuine indignation when they learn that their privacy has also been targeted." - Glen Greenwald https://github.com/poppingtonic/greenwald-30c3-keynote/blob/...

In fairness, spying of congress (and the president, judges, etc) does seem much more concerning then spying on most citizens, as it would allow them to break the checks on their power that those bodies should provide. In fact, one of the largest concerns I have heard about surveleince is that it would allow them to blackmail politicians.

Yeah but if you're trying to catch criminals the signal to noise is far better with presidents, judges, and congress than with boring, normal citizens.

Hehe, good one.

FTR, the ratio is much lower when trying to catch foreign terrorists. :P

>In fact, one of the largest concerns I have heard about surveleince is that it would allow them to blackmail politicians

Would? That has been standard fair at least since the days of J.E Hoover.

And the technology keeps evolving.

> In fact, one of the largest concerns I have heard about surveleince is that it would allow them to blackmail politicians.

Considering the NSA is recording the content of everything, let's be honest, over time they accumulate blackmail material on everyone.

This applies to elected officials, and people who haven't even decided to run yet.

Erm, we live in a democracy. Almost anyone in the country over the age of 30 could potentially become a member of congress in 2 years or less. Being able to discourage someone from running for office is potentially just as distressing as being able to influence someone already in power.

No they won't. They'll just exempt themselves from it. Congress exempts itself from tonnes of laws.

[citation needed]

Congress is exempt from insider trading laws and many forms of arrest. A quick google search will reveal this.

Not anymore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STOCK_Act

Except they then later repealed a major portion of the act - public disclosure.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/04/16/177496734...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/12/usa-congress-secur...

Provided a narrow law protecting only congresspeople and their staff is not all that comes out of this.

I guess he didn't get the memo. It's a dragnet, senator, they spy on everyone.

That's the point. He knows very well the answer is "Yes".