Like the Democratic senator who initiated the proposal, the Rhode Island Republian believes the president's decision to initiate wiretaps without court orders was illegal and says he looks forward to the debate on the program that will likely ensue.

01:00 AM EST on Thursday, March 16, 2006

BY JOHN E. MULLIGAN
Journal Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee, who cast a protest vote against President Bush's reelection in 2004, says he won't rule out support for what he calls the "drastic" penalty of a formal Senate censure of Mr. Bush.

Chafee agrees with Sen. Russell D. Feingold that the president acted illegally when he launched an antiterrorism program of warrantless wiretaps of some U.S. citizens, he said Tuesday. But Chafee, a Republican, currently does not support the Wisconsin Democrat's proposal to punish the president with a censure, he said.

"Everything should occur in steps," Chafee said in an interview citing, for instance, the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearings on the wiretapping program.

Chafee was asked whether those steps might lead to a censure of Mr. Bush that he would support. "I know you want me to go there," Chafee said, but he did not answer the question directly.

However, Chafee said he does not rule out an eventual decision to back the censure resolution, introduced Monday. He also welcomed the public argument that Feingold has spurred about the surveillance program. "You just don't hear it -- any outrage, or questioning of it, or even support," Chafee said, referring to what he considers to be a dearth of debate in Rhode Island about the wiretapping.

Chafee has jumped into a debate that Feingold's fellow Democrats have treated with uneasiness at a moment when polls show most Americans supporting the wiretap program -- even as they give Mr. Bush low approval ratings overall.

Some of Chafee's fellow Republicans, meanwhile, have treated Feingold's measure as a chance to portray the maverick liberal as a politically driven presidential hopeful -- and his party as so inimical toward Mr. Bush that it goes to extremes.

Mr. Bush's secret National Security Agency program eavesdrops without court permission on overseas phone calls and emails involving U.S. citizens and persons suspected of terrorist activities. The program became public late last year.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist sought Monday to capitalize on the Democrats' discomfort with Feingold's resolution by calling for an immediate vote. But Democratic leaders blocked the potentially embarrassing tally. Censure -- a symbolic Senate resolution of condemnation -- has been invoked against only one president, Andrew Jackson.

Chafee, a maverick liberal who faces a primary challenge from Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey, votes against Mr. Bush more than any Senate Republican. He was the only Senate Republican to oppose the congressional resolution in 2002 authorizing Mr. Bush to use force against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Chafee also wavered in his support of Mr. Bush's reelection, endorsing the president, then withdrawing his endorsement and, finally, announcing that he had cast his ballot in the November 2004 election for former President George H.W. Bush as a symbolic protest.

Chafee drew some national attention when he said Monday that Feingold's censure resolution would be " 'positive' if it fueled debate over the legality of some policies in the war on terrorism," according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

After that report was published Tuesday, Chafee spokesman Stephen Hourahan said the senator's comment was taken out of context. Chafee's Senate reelection campaign issued a statement from the senator that said in part:

"As I travel around Rhode Island, I am surprised by the lack of discussion on the proper balance between civil liberties and national security. While I do not agree with Senator Feingold's motion to censure the president, I believe in the need for a vigorous dialogue about this proper balance."

The Wisconsin newspaper said its tape recording of Chafee's remarks Monday went as follows:

"At least it's accomplishing getting it into the public awareness. Because nobody, in Rhode Island anyway, is talking about the issue. And I think that's positive. The American public -- if they're going to make a decision to allow illegal activity because we're in a war on terror, then I think that's an important debate we should be having," said Chafee in reference to the Bush administration.

Laffey said yesterday in a statement: "Let's be clear: it's a very bad idea to censure the president over a policy dispute, and it's a very bad thing for Rhode Island to have a senator who switches his position on such a basic issue within 24 hours."

When Chafee was interviewed in January about the wiretaps program, he criticized it but said he would draw no conclusions about its legality or constitutionality until the Senate Judiciary Committee completed its inquiry.

Why, Chafee was asked Tuesday, has he come to the conclusion that the program is illegal, with the committee's inquiry still under way?

Chafee answered by reiterating his initial criticism of the program. "From what I've seen," he said, the wiretap program "is outside the parameters" of the Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches and existing law governing such programs.

Chafee also said that he believes Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, another Republican who sometimes votes against his party leadership, is keeping censure of Mr. Bush on the table as an option.

Specter told reporters yesterday that Feingold's censure resolution will be referred to his committee today and "held over" without any action.

"It's out of line," Specter said of the censure resolution, "it's over the top, it's out of bounds."

jmulligan@belo-dc.com / (202) 661-8423