Gore is hardly an objective observer. His speech is only an indictment. The proof of the charges can come only in congressional hearings and, ultimately, in the courts.

But even after discounting for political motivations, it seems to me that Gore has done a service bylaying out the case as clearly and copiously as he has done. His overall charge is that Bush has systematically broken the laws and bent the Constitution by his actions in the national security and domesticanti-terrorism areas.

1. The first — and, to my mind, weakest — instance is the claim that Bush took the nation to war on the basis of false intelligence about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

2. But the other cases cited by Gore are more troubling. The Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, for which only low-level military personnel have been punished, traces back through higher and untouched levels ofcommand to the Pentagon, the

3. Justice Department and the White House, all of which failed in their duties to assure that the occupation forces were adhering to recognized international standards for thetreatment of prisoners.

4. Similarly, the administration’s resistance to setting and enforcing clear prohibitions on torture and inhumane treatment of detainees in the war on terrorism raises legitimate questions about its willingness to adhere to the rule of law. From the first days after 9/11, Bush has appeared to believe that he is essentially unconstrained. His oddly equivocal recent signing statement on John McCain’s legislation banning such tactics seemed to say he could ignore the plain terms of the law.

5. Gore’s final example — on which he has lots of company among legal scholars — is the contention that Bush broke the law in ordering the National Security Agency to monitor domestic phone calls without awarrant from the court Congress had created to supervise all such wiretapping. If— as the Justice Department and the White House insist — the president can flout that law, then it is hard to imagine what power he cannot assert.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter has summoned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to a hearing on the warrantless wiretap issue, and that hearing should be the occasion for a broad exploration of the willingness of this administration to be constrained by the Constitution and the laws.

Gore is certainly right about one thing. When he challenged the members of Congress to “start acting like the independent and co-equal branch of government you’re supposed to be,” he was issuing a call of conscience that goes well beyond any partisan criticism.

Contact David Broder at

davidbroder@)washpost.com.

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