"The White House is engaged in sleight-of-hand duplicity over what the real debate is over. The President does not want his actions constrained or have any oversight over his actions. That doesn't wash in a democracy. Do you know what a democracy is, Mr. Bush? Do you know what checks-and-balances means? Would you please scribble out an essay -- in your own hand -- as to what you think the limits of Executive Power are? Or, do you feel that the Chief Executive has no limits? We'd really like to know, Mr. Bush. Your defense of wiretaps that even John Ashcroft got ulcers about approving makes the nation's skin crawl. You've taken this country into the Orwellian nightmare that we all accused the Soviet Union of promulgating -- and now that has become us. We are spying on ourselves without Constitutional protections and judicial regulation. That is NOT democracy, though I'm sure that those in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East who are allegedly "learning democracy" from us are taking notes." - - - Steve Clemons