Writing in the Ithaca Journal, Marty Luster, a democrat, argues that the President and Vice President Cheney should be impeached, over what Luster characterizes as the administration's history of "lies," "secrecy" and "torture."

As if the lies that took us to Iraq were not enough. As if the knowing use of bad intelligence wasn't enough. As if the ever- shifting justifications for this war were not enough. As if the use of torture by and at the behest of the United States was not enough. As if the disclosure of classified information to retaliate against a critic of the war policy was not enough. As if the shroud of secrecy that binds this administration was not enough. As if the squandering of hundreds of billions of dollars in support of this war at a time when we can't find the money to rebuild one of our great cities, when millions of us go without health care and when the federal government has reneged on its commitment to public education was not enough....Now, after all that, now we have the disclosure that the president personally ordered and continues to order the interception of telephone and e-mail communications of thousands of U.S. citizens and residents on U.S. soil without search warrants, without court authorization of any sort and without any basis in the constitution or laws of this land.

According to Luster, Bush "has violated his oath of office by failing to “preserve, protect and defend” our Constitution and has violated the law of this land by ignoring the strictures and limits of (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act)."

However, not all democrats agree with Luster. For example, John Schmidt, who served as an assistant attorney general during the Clinton administration, has stated his belief that Bush's actions were "consistent with court decisions and with the positions of the Justice Department under prior presidents."

In the Supreme Court's 1972 Keith decision holding that the president does not have inherent authority to order wiretapping without warrants to combat domestic threats, the court said explicitly that it was not questioning the president's authority to take such action in response to threats from abroad.

Four federal courts of appeal subsequently faced the issue squarely and held that the president has inherent authority to authorize wiretapping for foreign intelligence purposes without judicial warrant.

In the most recent judicial statement on the issue, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, composed of three federal appellate court judges, said in 2002 that "All the . . . courts to have decided the issue held that the president did have inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches to obtain foreign intelligence . . . We take for granted that the president does have that authority."

Luster did not include any of the decisions cited by Schimdt in his analysis.

As Ithaca City Attorney, Luster has used his office for a number of controversial political actions. For example, in 2004, he sued the State of New York, using taxpayer funds, in an effort to force the state to allow gay marriage.

It is unknown whether Luster composed his column attacking Bush during his taxpayer-funded office hours. Under New York State law, the use of public property for partisan purposes may be illegal.

Luster is retiring at the end of this year. His replacement, Dan Hoffman, is also a well-known local Democrat.