Russ Feingold Wants Censure
This is part of Russ Feingold’s opening statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee in his attempt to censure the President. His opening remarks are directed at the chairman, Arlen Specter. He is truly off in left field on this one.
Where we disagree, apparently, is whether the President’s authority under Article II of the Constitution allows him to authorize warrantless surveillance without complying with FISA. You have said you think this is a close question. I do not believe he has such authority and I don’t think it’s a close question. We will continue to debate that I’m sure. But I think the fact that you have proposed legislation on this program undermines your argument that such presidential authority exists. Because if it does exist, then nothing that we can legislate, no matter how carefully crafted, is worth a hill of beans. For starters, your proposed bill may or may not cover what the NSA is now doing. You and I have no way of knowing because we have not been fully briefed on the program, and I am a member of the Intelligence Committee as well. But regardless, if the President has the inherent authority to authorize whatever surveillance he thinks is necessary, then he surely will ignore your law, just as he has ignored FISA on many occasions.
If Congress doesn’t have the power to define the contours of the President’s Article II powers through legislation, then I have no idea why people are scrambling to draft legislation to authorize what they think the President is doing. If the President’s legal theory, which is shared by some of our witnesses today, is correct, then FISA is a dead letter, all of the supposed protections for civil liberties contained in the reauthorization of the Patriot Act that we just passed are a cruel hoax, and any future legislation we might pass regarding surveillance or national security is a waste of time and a charade. Under this theory, we no longer have a constitutional system consisting of three co-equal branches of government, we have a monarchy.
We can fight terrorism without breaking the law. The rule of law is central to who we are as a people, and the President must return to the law. He must acknowledge and be held accountable for his illegal actions and for misleading the American people, both before and after the program was revealed. If we in the Congress don’t stand up for ourselves and for the American people, we become complicit in his law breaking. A resolution of censure is the appropriate response – even a modest approach.
Mr. Chairman, the presence of John Dean here today should remind us that we must respond to this constitutional crisis based on principle, not partisanship. How we respond to the President’s actions will become part of our history. A little over 30 years ago, a President who broke the law was held to account by a bipartisan congressional investigation and by patriots like Archibald Cox and Elliot Richardson and yes, John Dean, who put loyalty to the Constitution and the rule of law above the interests of the President who appointed them. None of us here can predict how history will view this current episode. But I hope that thirty years from now, this Senate will not be seen to have backed down in the face of such a grave challenge to our constitutional system.
Feingold is nuttier than a fruitcake. To make his argument, the Senator is doing what he does best, using slight of hand, double-speak, and engaging in circumlocution, talking in circles. The very idea that some written law that created FISA would trump the Constitution is sheer lunacy. To think that because Congress gave the go-ahead to go to war against Iraq would give the legislative branch an upper hand against the President is stupid. If you follow Feingold’s own reasoning, Congress does not have the authority to limit President Bush’s power when the Constitution gives him the power to protect the American people. The Senator from Wisconsin is either a real loon or he wants power. Either one is dangerous.
Russ Feingold does not mention what the FISA judges themselves had to say about the matter, nor will he. This is a man who wants to run for President and is trying desperately to corral all the liberal nutcases into his corner. Considering the reaction of some from the Huffington Post, the Senator’s plan is working.
But it’s not too reassuring when our side can’t muster up more backbone than a former Nixon lawyer (John Dean) and a former Reagan lawyer (Bruce Fein).
They were pretty good — but where were the non-Leahy Dems?
Bush & Cheney are spying on us. It’s wrong! Duh.
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