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Chapter 4 – Section 3
Extending the Bill of Rights
FEMALE SPEAKER #1: The debate over the limits of presidential power is as old as the republic itself.
MALE SPEAKER: Every time we go to war the tension between the president and congress flairs.
FEMALE SPEAKER #1: Now many in Washington believe that tension is about to snap into open hostility.
MALE SPEAKER: We have hit a point where Congress is very much trying to reassert itself and much less willing to give the president excessive power.
FEMALE SPEAKER #1: Since 9/11 the Republican controlled Congress has often differed to expanding White House authority especially on national security. What’s followed says presidential historian James Thurber is an extraordinary expansion of executive power.
MALE SPEAKER: There is always a balance between freedom and liberty on one side, and order and rule of law on the other. And we are going towards more order in the executive branch.
PRESIDENT BUSH: We’re at war. And as the commander in chief I have got to use the resources at my disposal.
FEMALE SPEAKER #1: He is not alone, Abraham Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus during the Civil War, Woodrow Wilson pushed anti sedition laws, Franklin Roosevelt interred thousands of Japanese Americans, and Richard Nixon ordered spying on antiwar activists.
MALE SPEAKER: In all of those cases there was push back by the American public through the press but also by congress and that’s likely to happen this time.
FEMALE SPEAKER #1: The seeds for this pushback were sown with failures in Iraq. They took root with the poor response to hurricane Katrina and then grew wild with the revelations that the Bush administration eaves dropped on suspected terrorists inside the U.S. Operations that many think are illegal. Now many in Congress are thinking about their own reelection come November.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Is there a political element to it? Of course, this is Washington, there is a political element to everything, but there are some serious policy questions being asked here that need to be answered.
FEMALE SPEAKER: The first shots could come as early as this week at the hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.
MALE SPEAKER: I don’t think it’s going to doom the Alito nomination by any means, but I do think we are now going to start hearing the argument.
FEMALE SPEAKER: David Gurgan witnessed White House power plays as an aide to Democratic and Republican administrations.
MALE SPEAKER: It could be a real obstacle for President Bush in terms of trying to recover as president he may be on the defensive much longer than he would like.
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