US lawmakers said that Bush, the Evangelist-in-Chief, may have broken the law by approving the secret monitoring of phone calls and emails within the United States after the September 11 attacks.
But the administration insisted the wire taps, even without a court warrant, were legal and VP Dick "5 Vietnam Deferrments Chickenhawk" Cheney criticised those who he said were not committed to "doing everything" to guard against new terrorist attacks on the United States. [Rarely is a wiretap request turned down by the special Surveillance Court, so why skip that Constitutionally-mandated step? Has Bush relegated the executive branch is above the law and not answerable to the checks and balances of the legislative and judicial branchs?]
Members of Bush's Republican party and opposition Democrats called, however, for an inquiry into the eavesdropping.