Few can match the vitriol and sensationalism of a Robert Byrd diatribe, such as the one he gave February 17, 2006 on the Senate Floor:

[I]n his radio address on December 17, 2005, President Bush disclosed that after September 11, 2001, he authorized the National Security Agency, NSA, to undertake wiretapping of American citizens to try to prevent terrorist attacks. The President argued that his actions were, in his words, “fully consistent” with his constitutional responsibilities.

The President wrongly asserted–Mr. President, the President wrongly asserted–that his authority to order warrantless electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens on American soil is supported by his inherent Presidential powers and the joint congressional resolution that authorized the use of force after September 11.

Actually, the surveillance in question was of known terrorists conducting international calls. When a terrorist picks up the phone and calls someone inside our country, we have to listen immediately, regardless of whether the burden of “due cause” is met. To do otherwise would be criminally negligent.

A huge swath–a huge swath–of America, including many expert legal minds, does not–I say, does not–agree with the arguments put forth by the administration. These arguments are transparently contrived, intellectually deficient, indefensible excuses being served up like tripe to silence legitimate criticism of the White House.

Let me say that again. A huge swath of America, including many expert legal minds, does not agree with the arguments put forth by the administration. These arguments are transparently contrived, intellectually deficient, indefensible excuses being served up like tripe to silence legitimate criticism of the White House, a White House so infused with its own hubris that it has talked itself into believing that its inhabitants are above the law. But they are not. They are not above the law. President Bush is not above the law. No President is above the law. No United States Senator is above the law. No man is above the law. No one in the United States of America is above the law. Remember, this is a nation of laws, not of men.

“No Senator is above the law.” I think I heard Ted Kennedy snicker at that one…but it might have been a drunken snort, I’m not entirely certain. No man is above the law, that is correct. Nor should we expect peacetime law to be applicable in a time of war. Soldiers do not get charged with murder for shooting other soldiers (though many a peace activist wishes it were so!). Terrorists who call people in the United States do not get the protections of the fourth amendment, neither should those they talk to.

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