The link to the article can be found here.

Nothing inherently wrong with the concept, although it seems unnecessarily heavy-handed and complex as a way for collecting this type of intelligence. It would be nice if our intelligence agencies could get back to using spies for stuff like this again, even if we have to offend some people by dealing with criminals.

As for:

What next?
I mean, what kind of mind lays around at night thinking of how to save face the NEXT time around?

Must be a Republican.

To the best of my knowledge, covering your political ass is not a monopoly of Republican politicians. It was pretty much a full-time job for Clinton during his administration.