TomHarkin.com  - Senator Tom Harkin (March 16, 2006)

We have a President who likes to break things. He has broken the federal budget, running up $3 trillion in new debt. He has broken the Geneva Conventions, giving the green light to torture. He has repeatedly broken promises – and broken faith – with the American people. And now, worst of all, he has broken the law.

In brazen violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), he ordered the National Security Agency to conduct warrantless wiretaps of American citizens. And, despite getting caught red-handed, he refuses to stop.

Let's be clear: No American – and that must include the President – is above the law. And if we fail to hold Bush to account, then he will be confirmed in his conviction that he can pick and choose among the laws he wants to obey. This is profoundly dangerous to our democracy.

So it is time for Congress to stand up and say enough! That's why, this week, Senator Russ Feingold proposed a resolution to censure George W. Bush for breaking the FISA law. And that's why I fully support this resolution of censure.

Nothing is more important to me than the security of our country. Of course, we need to be listening to the terrorists' conversations. And sometimes there is not time to get a warrant. That's why the FISA law allows the President, when necessary, to wiretap first, and obtain a warrant afterward. But that's not acceptable to this above-the-law President. He rejects the idea that he should have to obtain a warrant before or after wiretapping.

We have an out-of-control President whose arrogant and, now, illegal behavior is running our country into the ditch. It's time to rein him in. And a fine place to start is by passing this resolution of censure. I hope that Senator Feingold's measure will be brought to the floor. And when it is, I will proudly vote yes.

Plus, "A Message from Tom Harkin on Iraq"

Lost and facing failure in Iraq, President Bush can’t bring himself to ask for directions or change course. His policy in a shambles, he refuses to admit mistakes.

It’s time to impose some adult supervision on this wayward president. It’s time to chart a new, reality-based course for America and Iraq. Today, I offered a resolution in the Senate calling for redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq by December 31.

Three years after “mission accomplished” was declared on the USS Abraham Lincoln, we still have 133,000 troops on the ground in Iraq. We are building what appear to be permanent military bases. We are constructing a Baghdad embassy that will span 104 acres, the size of 80 football fields. This president's call to “stay the course” must look to Iraqis like it means “stay forever.”

President Bush’s approach gives rise to suspicions that the United States has long-term designs on Iraq and its oil. It has deprived the government there of incentive to resolve its internal divisions and stand on its own feet. With the war in its fourth year, the President’s course appears bound for continued stalemate and stagnation.

My resolution does three things: (1) It states that the United States should not maintain a permanent military presence or military bases in Iraq. (2) It declares that the United States should not attempt to control the flow of Iraqi oil. And (3) it directs that US Armed Forces should be redeployed from Iraq as soon as practicable after the completion of Iraq’s constitution-making process or December 31, 2006, whichever comes first.

To their everlasting credit, our troops have accomplished the tasks they were sent to achieve, despite disastrous decisions by civilian leaders in Washington. Iraqis now have a democratically elected government. It’s time to bring home as many troops as possible, and to redeploy as many as necessary to fight al Qaeda and others who pose a real threat to our national security.

The president’s invasion of Iraq was a strategic blunder, a fatal diversion from our pursuit of those who attacked us on 9/11. The time has come to get out of Iraq and adopt a smarter approach to national security. I urge you to contact your members of Congress, and tell them to support my resolution on redeployment from Iraq.