Peace pretty well summed it up when he said, "These guys are slicker than goose shit in the rain." Through a combination of convoluted logic and shear arrogance, the Bush administration has managed to stay within the letter of the law while violating its spirit on more issues than any other five administrations lumped together.

A few examples:

1) Using the "war on terror", a purely metaphorical usage of the word "war", as a basis for assuming powers granted to a president only in wartime. I don't remember Lyndon Johnson using unauthorized wiretaps to fight the "war on poverty".

2) Staging an unprovoked invasion of a foreign country and assuming additional wartime powers. I believe the laws giving presidents special powers during wartime were intended to aid in defense against aggressors, not to aid in being the aggressor.

3) Using signing statements to effectively ignore provisions of laws passed by Congress.

All the above are technically quite legal. They violate no laws. They merely disembowel the spirit in which the laws were written.