Quote:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales failed on Monday to convince the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and other lawmakers that President Bush had the legal authority to conduct warrantless eavesdropping against U.S. citizens.

At a daylong Senate hearing, Gonzales doggedly defended the National Security Agency's surveillance of international phone calls and e-mails as an indispensable "early warning system" against terrorist attacks.

Democrats and some Republicans challenged his assertion that Bush had the authority to act under both the Constitution and a congressional resolution that authorized the use of U.S. military force against al Qaeda three days after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

"I do not think that any fair, realistic reading of the September 14 resolution gives you the power to conduct electronic surveillance," the committee chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, told Gonzales at the end of a grueling day.

Specter also called for investigations by the full Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees, saying only a thorough closed-door examination of the program could determine whether Bush had the inherent authority to conduct warrantless surveillance.
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Reuters
No surprise that this comes down to close door hearings.

Fair play!