Bush Censure Movement Needs to Resume Speed

President Bush should be censured for breaking the law by illegally wiretapping American citizens. In 1974, Congress took responsibility for holding the President, then Richard Nixon, to the law. This Republican Congress would be showing the world that party loyalty and nest feathering is more important than their responsibility to uphold the Constitution should they not measure up to the 1974 Congress that saw its duty and rose above next feathering by performing its duty.

Regarding the proposal to censure President Bush, Republicans are on the attack, running ads accusing Senator Feingold of being "more interested in censuring the President than protecting our freedom." They can't defend President Bush's lawbreaking, so they're trying to stifle dissent by changing the subject.

Of course, this isn't about terrorism. The president already had the authority to wiretap suspected terrorists and get a warrant days later. But he went around the court set up to protect innocent Americans.Republicans like John McCain and Lindsey Graham have acknowledged that the president acted above his authority but now they're discussing plans to retroactively make his program legal. When the president misleads the public and the Congress and willfully and repeatedly breaks the law, there need to be some consequences --that's how the law works for everybody else. Censuring the president is a reasonable first step in condemning his actions.