Despite heavy flak from the White House and little initial backing from Democrats in the House or Senate, Senator Feingold said yesterday that he is "extremely pleased with the way this is going."

While Vice President Cheney continues to ask which side the Democrats are on -- are they for "terrorists with telephones" or for President Bush -- Feingold observes, "If such a crazy idea [as censure] has such limited appeal, why do they have the attack dogs calling all over the country about this?"

Strip away all the political rhetoric, all the parliamentary maneuvering, all the posturing, the arm-twisting, the partisan patriotic jingoes, and one finds, beyond any doubt, that the NSA domestic eavesdropping program listens in on innocent Americans' phone conversations and reads their email.

That is in violation of the FISA law.

Last January, Representative John Conyers (D-MI), Vice Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, conducted a Congressional "hearing" on the NSA spy program in a basement broom closet in the Capitol. After denying Conyers' motion to open an official inquiry, with subpoena powers, the Republican Chair of the Committee had denied use of the Committee chambers to Conyers for his "hearing".

Never-the-less, Conyers proceeded to hear voluntary testimony on the legality and legitimacy of the President's authorization of the NSA's program.

Ben Frank, a blogger, has published an audio and rough draft of Jonathon Turley's testimony at that hearing. Turley is a former NSA attorney who now holds an endowed chair in Public Interest Law at George Washington University Law School. Excerpts of Turley's remarks:

"On Dec 30th 2005, the President signed the torture bill and he used a “signing statement”- reserving the right to violate that law. Now we know that there is an NSA operation based on the same extreme theory of Presidential power.

"The problem with these claims is that they are devoid of any limiting principles. They place this country on a slippery slope that inevitably leads to a maximum leader.

"I read the document put out by the Dept of Justice [yesterday] and I’ve changed my testimony to address that document. Frankly what is most remarkable is not the sweeping claims of authority, but the conspicuous lack of authority to support those claims.

"The Supreme Court has rejected the very claims being made by the President with regard to the NSA operation, it is in direct contradiction of FISA.

"Now I want to be absolutely clear, what the President ordered in this case was a crime. Now we can debate whether he had a good or bad motivation, but it was a crime.

"The federal law makes it clear- you cannot engage in this type of domestic surveillance without committing a crime. We can debate the wisdom of that, we can debate why the President may have done it, but in my view, the President committed a crime, and we have to deal with that as citizens. And unfortunately, you have to deal with that as members of Congress."

The audio and transcript of Turley's testimony may be found at:
http://benfrank.net/blog/2006/01/24/nsa_hearing_audio/

The written transcript of the testimony Turley had intended to present is available at:
http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/nsabriefing/turleystmt12006.pdf

And the complete transcript of the Conyers hearing is available at:
http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/nsabrief.html

Do not be deceived -- behind that Republican stonewall, buried in the Administration's denials and distractions, wrapped in Congressional Democrats' silence, is a very large elephant, right there in the living room.