Posted on 12/20/2005 5:11:24 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON – Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday called for "strong and robust" presidential powers, saying executive authority was eroded during the Watergate and Vietnam eras. Some lawmakers objected that President Bush's decision to spy on Americans to foil terrorists showed he was flexing more muscle than the Constitution allows.
The revelations of Bush's four-year-old order approving domestic surveillance without court warrants has spurred a fiery debate over the balance of power between the White House, Congress and the judiciary.
"I believe in a strong, robust executive authority and I think that the world we live in demands it," Cheney said.
"I would argue that the actions that we've taken there are totally appropriate and consistent with the constitutional authority of the president. ... You know, it's not an accident that we haven't been hit in four years," the vice president said, speaking with reporters on Air Force Two en route from Pakistan to Oman.
On Capitol Hill, senators from both parties said the role of Congress cannot be sidelined – even in wartime.
"I think the vice president ought to reread the Constitution," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
Democrats said they were deeply troubled by the surveillance program, and contended the president had no authority to approve it. "He has no legal basis for spying on Americans without court approval," said Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate.
Republicans said Congress must investigate whether Bush was within the law to allow the super-secret National Security Agency to eavesdrop – without warrants – on international calls and e-mails of Americans and others inside the United States with suspected ties to al-Qaeda.
"I believe the Congress – as a coequal branch of government – must immediately and expeditiously review the use of this practice," said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.
Snowe joined three other members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, including Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel, in calling for a joint inquiry by the Senate judiciary and intelligence committees.
The administration defends the program, saying Congress gave Bush the authority to use "signals intelligence" – wiretaps, for example – to eavesdrop on international calls between U.S. citizens and foreigners when one of them is a suspected al-Qaeda member or supporter.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales cites the Authorization to Use Military Force law, which Congress passed and Bush signed a week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The administration believes that law lets the government avoid provisions of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The surveillance act was passed after public outcry over abuses during the Nixon administration, which spied on anti-war and civil rights protesters. Under the act, known as FISA, an 11-member court oversees government applications for secret surveillance or searches of foreigners and U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism or espionage.
"I'm not a lawyer, but in my reading, it is pretty conclusive, very conclusive, that FISA prohibits all warrantless electronic surveillance of Americans in America," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., asked: "Why didn't the administration feel that it could go to the FISA court to get the warrant?"
Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill calling on Congress to determine whether there are grounds for impeachment – an event that is extremely unlikely in a Republican-controlled Congress.
Democrats called attention to a Bush statement in April 2004 that they said conflicts with what the president is saying now.
"Any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires – a wiretap requires a court order," Bush said during a speech on the Patriot Act in Buffalo, N.Y. "Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so."
The White House said the president's comments – two years after approving the domestic surveillance program – applied to the kind of roving wiretaps the Patriot Act allows for law enforcement, not eavesdropping for foreign intelligence.
Bush and his top advisers have suggested senior congressional leaders vetted the program in more than a dozen highly classified briefings. Democrats said they were told of the program, but had concerns.
West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the Senate Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, on Monday released a letter he wrote to Cheney in July 2003 that, given the program's secrecy, he was "unable to fully evaluate, much less endorse these activities."
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., pushed back Tuesday, saying that if Rockefeller had concerns about the program, he could have used the tools he has to wield influence, such as requesting committee or legislative action. "Feigning helplessness is not one of those tools," Roberts said.
Cheney told reporters that in his view, presidential authority has been weakened since the 1970s through laws such as the War Powers Act, which Cheney says infringes on presidential authority.
He said the White House has helped protect presidential power by fighting to keep secret the list of people who were a part of his 2001 energy task force. The task force's activities attracted complaints from environmentalists, who said they were shut out of discussions on developing a national energy policy while corporate interests were present.
"That issue was litigated all the way up to the Supreme Court and we won," Cheney said.
Associated Press writers Nedra Pickler in Oman and Katie Shrader, Liz Sidoti, Elizabeth White in Washington contributed to this report.
White House: www.whitehouse.gov
Are democrats really this stupid that Bush hatred overrides all common sense?
Yes.
Not expanded powers, just the powers granted by the Constitution.
You're so right, Democrats--he should have added "Except for those confidential, classified ones."
^%$(ing morons.
Don't tell Abe and FDR that. ;-)
Well your impressions are wrong. I suggest you put your knee jerk anti Goverment Paranoia on hold and actually read the the FISA statues
Demonizing 101. Convince the sheeplike populace that the target is a threat to their safety.
In case there's any doubt, the demonizer I was referring to is the AP, with the target being the VP. They do everything in their power to completely demonize this honorable, thoughtful, patriotic man.
any POTUS would have to be out of his mind to reveal too much information to Senators .. does no one remember how Sen. Leaky got his nickname? When he was Chairman of the Intel Committee?
Leave it to Snowe and Hagel to stick with the Dems.
And if it works, this country deserves the fate it will receive.
I agree. I hate it, but I agree.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas. Have there been any other public statements by "Republican" senators in support of President Bush?
I believe that domestic surveillance should be greatly expanded. Those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear. Groups like PETA and Catholic Workers' groups should be monitored if they have communist leanings. Although our principal concern how is Islamofascism, the threat of communism isn't entirely gone, though it has been weakened greatly.
I couldn't care less if the government were to listen to my own phone calls. I have nothing to hide. All they would learn from listening is that I love America and that I hate terrorists. Those who fear government surveillance are most likely those who are engaged in illegal activities. For the rest of us, it really shouldn't be much of an issue.
Cheney is on the OFFENSE. This is a great releif. About time.
As soon, as I read about the leaks, I thought of Jay Rockefeller, and he's leaked memo, about how he would
do anything, and everything, to destroy the Bush Admin-
istration....Gee, I can put the dots together.! Someone,
please, nail his ass, to this leak.
Expanded???? I don't think so.
Besides Roberts?
I didn't see it, but someone saw Hutchinson apparently giving solid defense. Cornyn blasted the NYT's from the start. Sessions has come out swinging. I believe DeMint has gone strongly on record. There may be others, but those are the names I know of so far. So Snowe, Linds and hagel aren't the only ones speaking on record. they are just the usual MSM panderers that need to be run out of the party.
Yes, I just remembered Hutchinson.
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