WASHINGTON, 15 March 2006 — A liberal Democratic Senator and potential White House contender’s move to censure President George W. Bush for ordering domestic spying ignited heated debate among lawmakers on Monday and was dismissed by the White House as politically motivated.
The problematic eavesdropping program, which granted intelligence officers the power to monitor — without court approval — international calls and e-mails of US residents, when those officers suspect terrorism could be involved. Senator Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, said Bush broke the law and violated the Constitution when he authorized the National Security Agency to conduct the warrantless wiretapping program as part of the war on terrorism. “Congress must respond,” Feingold said Monday on the Senate floor. “A formal censure by Congress is an appropriate and responsible first step to assure the public that when the president thinks he can violate the law without consequences.” [The censure resolution, which simply would scold the president, has been used just once – against Andrew Jackson in 1834 over a dispute about banking. Jackson had removed the nation’s money from a private bank in defiance of the Whig Party, which controlled the Senate.] Feingold’s introduction of the five-page censure resolution set off maneuvering among his fellow Democrats, the minority in the Senate, to prevent a vote that could alienate swing voters.
The Democrats, fearing a backlash, immediately blocked the vote; worried they would give back political gains made from Bush’s recent upset with the Dubai ports deal. They later tried to say they didn’t abandon Feingold.
Several Democrats said that before any censure, they wanted the Senate Intelligence Committee to finish an investigation of the warrantless wiretapping program. Asked at a news conference whether he would vote for the censure resolution, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, declined to endorse it, saying he hadn’t yet read it.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Connecticut, said he had not read it either. “I’d prefer to see us solve the problem,” Lieberman told reporters.
The White House dismissed the threat on Monday, calling it politically motivated, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Feingold’s move “has more to do with 2008 politics than anything else.”
Bush gave a scheduled speech at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies at George Washington University, which focused on staying the course in Iraq. Bush’s political offensive was aimed at resurrecting his slumping agenda, sinking public approval ratings, and rebuilding support for an increasingly unpopular war.
“I wish I could tell you that the violence is waning and that the road ahead will be smooth, it will not. There will be more tough fighting and more days of struggle, and we will see more images of chaos and carnage in the days and months to come,” Bush said, in his first of a series of speeches to mark the third anniversary of the start of the US-led war.
