Cheney calls for strong executive

Legislators from both parties expressed deep concern.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney called for "strong and robust" presidential powers Tuesday, 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 4-year-old order approving domestic surveillance without court warrants has spurred a fiery debate over the balance of power among 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.
Bipartisan outcry
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-Qaida.
"I believe the Congress -- as a co-equal 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.
White House defense
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-Qaida 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 activists. 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.
2004 statement
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. "
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