Al Gore: "America's Constitution is in Grave Danger"

AL GORE FOR PRESIDENT IN 2008!!!

Look, I don't know what came over this guy  in 2000, although I strongly believe that election was stolen from him.  But in 2006, this guy has it all together.  Today, he showed why he should have been President of the United States in 2000, and why he still would make a great President of the United States in 2008.  In a one-hour speech, Gore had the 3,000+ crowd super-energized, mesmerized, and in a near continual spasm of applause and standing ovation by the end.  Wow.

Here are highlights from the speech, per the transcript handed out to "press," bloggers like myself included. Please note that Gore deviated at times from the written speech. I attempted to capture this as accurately as possible.  According to Gore:

*"America's Constitution is in grave danger."

*"It is imperative that respect for the rule of law be restored in our country."

*"The President of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and consistently."

*"A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government...a government of laws and not men."

*This Administration has become "the central threat that the Founders sought to nullify in the Constitution - an all-powerful executive too reminiscent of the King from whom they had broken free."

*"...the people of this nation ultimately determine its course and not executive officials in secret without constraint."

*"Following the rule of law makes us safer, not more vulnerable."

*"Where [President Bush and I] disgree is on the proposition that we have to break the law or sacrifice our system of government to protect Americans from terrorism.  In fact, doing so makes us weaker and more vulnerable."

*"Once that ability [to police the executive branch] is lost, democracy itself is threatened..."

*"It is this same disrespect for America's Constitution which has now brought our republic to the brink of a dangerous breach in the fabric of the Constitution....deeply troubling to millions of Americans in both political parties."

*"No such right [to hold citizens indefinitely without an arrest warrant, without informing their families, etc.] exits in the America that you and I know and love.  This...must be rejected." [Note: these lines were added and not included in the transcript]

*"As a result of...unprecedented claim of new unilateral power, the Executive Branch has now put our constitutional design at grave risk."

*In the past, the country has gone through a "recurring cycle of excess and regret" with regard to Executive Power.  Today, however, "[t]here are reasons for concern...that conditions may be changing so that the cycle may not repeat itself."  This includes, first of all,"the slow and steady accumulation of presidential power."

*"A second reason to believe we may be  experiencing something new, outside the historical cycle, is that we are told by the Administration that the war footing...is going to 'last for the rest of our lives.'"

*"Third, we need to be keenly aware of the startling advances in eavesdropping and surveillance technologies..."

*"...inherent power cannot be used to justify a gross and excessive power grab lasting for many years and producing a serious imbalance in the relationship between the executive and the other two branches of government."

*"The common denominator seems to be...an instinct to intimidate and control."

*The Bush Administration is trapped in a "false belief bump[ing] up against solid reality...2,200 American soldiers have lost their lives as this false belief [about a WMD and a supposed link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda] bumped into solid reality."

*"In the absence of rigorous accountability, incompetence flourishes.  Dishonesty is encouraged and rewarded." [note:  Gore ad libbed that "this is human nature for Republicans, Democrats," or for anyone else.]

*"Republicans as well as Democrats should be concerned with what this President has done."

*Samuel Alito "will not vote as an effective check on the expansion of executive power," and for that reason, Gore opposes his confirmation to the Supreme Court.

*"...the Administration has demonstrated a contempt for the judicial role and sought to evade judicial review of its actions at every turn."

*"...the most serious damage to our constitutional framework has been done to the legislative branch...almost as shocking as the efforts by the Executive Branch to attain a massive expansion of its power."

*"The subservience of the Legislative to the Executive Branch is "astonishing to me and...foreign to what the Congress is supposed to be."  In Congress today, "meaningful debate is  now a rarity."

*The "massive four year eavesdropping campaign" by the Bush Administration clearly "violate[s] the Bill of Rights" and is "grossly unconsitutional."

*The Congress finds itself today in "an atmosphere conducive to pervasive institutionalized corruption."

*"The Abramoff scandal is but the tip of a giant iceberg that threatens the integrity of the entire legislative branch of government."

*"I call upon members of Congress in both parties to uphold your oath of office and defend the Constitution.  Stop going along to get along.  Start acting like the independent and co-equal branch of government you're supposed to be!"

*It is time for "we the people" to "breathe new life back into America's democracy."

*Television's "dominance has become so extensive that virtually all significant political communication now takes place within the confines of flickering 30-second television advertisements.  And they're NOT the Federalist Papers."

*This Administration has "consistently resort[ed] to the language and politics of fear in order to short-circuit...debate and drive its agenda without regard to the evidence or the public interest."*

*"Fear drives out reason."  As Justice Brandeis wrote, "Men feared witches and burnt women."

*Is it more dangerous today than in prior period of our history?  According to Gore, that is nonsense: "It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they.  Yet they faithfully protected our freedoms and now it is up to us to do the same."

*We must take "immediate steps" to "safeguard our Constitution against the present danger posed by...the President's apparent belief that he need not live under the rule of law."

*"A special counsel must immediately be appointed...to remedy the obvious conflict of interest that prevents [the President] from investigating what many believe are serious violations of law."

*Congress must "hold comprehensive...hearings into these serious allegations of criminal behavior on the part of the President. And they should follow the evidence wherever it leads."

*Extension of the Patriot Act should "under no circumstances be granted, unless and until there are adequate and enforceable safeguards to protect the Constitution and the rights of the American people against the kinds of abuses that have so recently been revealed."

*"...any telecommunications company that has provided the government with access to private information concerning the communications of Americans without a proper warrant should immediately cease and desist their complicity in this apparently illegal invasion of the privacy of American citizens."

*"...the freedom of the Internet [must] be protected."

*As Dr. Martin Luther King once said, "...we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us."

In sum, Al Gore?s brilliant, powerful speech focused - without the benefit of rose-colored glasses - on the serious threat to our constitution and American way of life posed by executive power run amok.  What is needed RIGHT NOW is action by an informed, engaged, and energized American citizenry.  If not, we deserve what we get.  If we vote for proven incompetence, then we deserve it when nobody comes to helps us in a hurricane, earthquake, or terrorist attack. If we vote for people who are in the pockets of companies that care more about their profits than about the American people, then we deserve it when the same companies write our laws, despoil our environment, and evict us from our homes when we can?t pay the energy bill.  If we support George Bush and the right-wing Republicans, then we must face the consequences ? war, recession, moral disgrace, and the loss of our Democracy. 

As Al Gore said today, in an ad lib from the prepared speech:  this election year, we must demand that every single politician - "in any race, any section of the country" -  hold this Administration accountable.  Anyone running for office this year must demand the appointment of a special counsel to "pursue the criminal issues raised by warrantless wiretapping of Americans by the President." If not, they should not get our votes.  Nothing less than our Constitution and our Democracy are at stake.  Al Gore issued the Paul Revere call to arms today.  It is now our job to ride to his call.

[UPDATE:  I failed to note that Gore's speech was sponsored by the American Constitution Society and the Liberty Coalition, a "transpartisan network dedicated to protecting civil liberties and human rights."  Former conservative Congressman Bob Barr (R-GA) was supposed to speak via video hookup, but there were technical difficulties with the live satellite feed.  However, the fact that Barr - an outspoken champion of protecting Americans' privacy and freedom - was scheduled to share the stage with Al Gore and was in agreement with him on the threat to our Constitution really says a lot.  Frankly, at this point, only blind Bush loyalists and apologists could possibly deny that his Administration's actions threaten our system of government, checks and balances, and Constitution itself.]

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