Democratic Senator Wants Bush Censured Over Domestic Eavesdropping

Democratic Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin said Sunday (March 12th) on ABC's This Week that he'll introduce a resolution to censure President Bush for ordering domestic eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without a warrant. Feingold said, "It's an unusual step. It's a big step. But what the president did by consciously and intentionally violating the Constitution and laws of this country with this illegal wiretapping, has to be answered."

However, Feingold's proposal isn't likely to go anywhere in the Republican-controlled Congress, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said on This Week that Feingold, quote, "is just wrong. He is flat wrong. He is dead wrong." Frist said censuring Bush would give America's enemies the impression that the president doesn't have the nation's full support.

Under the post-9/11 program, Bush approved warrantless spying on the phone calls and e-mails of people in the U.S. communicating with people overseas who are suspected of having al-Qaida ties. Critics say it violates constitutional protections against unreasonable searches as well as the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Service Act. But backers argue the president has constitutional powers to conduct the searches, and also say a law enacted by Congress after 9/11 authorizing the use of military force gave Bush the right to approve the eavesdropping.

This is called grasping for straws. You need to know that Russ Feingold wants to run for President in 2008. In my opinion any President that isn't monitoring incoming calls from Al-Qaida in a post 9-11 America should be fired for gross incompetence!