Washington – A liberal Democrat and potential White House contender proposes censuring President Bush for authorizing domestic eavesdropping, saying the White House misled Americans about its legality.
“The president has broken the law, and in some way he must be held accountable,” Sen. Russ Fein gold, D-Wis., said in an interview.
A censure resolution, which would simply scold the president, has been used just once in U.S. history – against Andrew Jackson in 1834.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., called the proposal “a crazy political move” that would weaken the U.S. during wartime.
The five-page resolution to be introduced today contends that Bush violated the law when, on his own, he set up the eavesdropping program within the National Security Agency in the months following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Bush claims that his authority as commander in chief as well as a September 2001 congressional authorization to use force in the fight against terrorism gave him the power to authorize the surveillance.
The White House had no immediate response Sunday.
The resolution says the president “repeatedly misled the public” before the disclosure of the NSA program in December when he indicated the administration was relying on court orders to wiretap terrorism suspects inside the U.S.
“Congress has to reassert our system of government, and the cleanest and the most efficient way to do that is to censure the president,” Feingold said. “And, hopefully, he will acknowledge that he did something wrong.”
The Wisconsin Democrat, considered a presidential contender for 2008, said he had not discussed censure with other senators but that, based on criticism leveled at Bush by both Democrats and Republicans, the resolution makes sense.
The president’s action were “in the strike zone” in terms of being an impeachable offense, Feingold said. The senator questioned whether impeaching Bush and removing him from office would be good for the country.
In the House, Rep. John Con yers of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, is pushing legislation that would call on the Republican-controlled Congress to determine whether there are grounds for impeachment.
