DANIEL SCHORR: President Bush is taking on an issue of presidential powers on which      presidents have stumbled before.</s>NORRIS: NPR senior news analyst Daniel Schorr.</s>DANIEL SCHORR: At his news conference today, the president said that      warrantless eavesdropping targeted at foreign citizens by the National      Security Agency will continue as long as the enemy threat continues.  Mr.      Bush chose not to avail himself of the tool that Congress has provided      for that purpose, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act passed in      1978 that permits him to apply, in secret, to a special court for a      warrant.</s>DANIEL SCHORR: In his defiance, there may be peril, as President Nixon discovered when      the House Judiciary Committee voted three articles of impeachment against      him, one of them for abuse of power:  the FBI, the CIA and the IRS.      Nixon took the position that he was using inherent presidential powers      granted by the Constitution.</s>DANIEL SCHORR: The Constitution says that the president shall exercise the executive      power and shall be commander in chief of the armed forces, but it doesn't      spell out what those powers are.  Some presidents have come up with what      they call the inherent power of the presidency, which tends to be what      they make it.</s>DANIEL SCHORR: Historians have said that President Lincoln freed the slaves, blockaded      Southern ports and instituted a draft all without constitutional      authority. President Reagan invoked inherent powers to justify the      illegal sale of missiles to Iran and the illegal financing of the civil      war in Nicaragua. Short of impeachment, the Congress has no way of      stopping a willful president except to deny him funds.  That, of course,      is unlikely, especially with a Republican-controlled Congress.</s>DANIEL SCHORR: The issue is not likely to go away.  Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman      Arlen Specter promises open hearings on eavesdropping early in the new      year.  The president denounced the media for breaking the story as      harmful to national security.  I can imagine that the administration,      invoking the inherent powers of national security, might refuse to      testify.  This is Daniel Schorr.
Senior news analyst Daniel Schorr says that the recent controversy over secret National Security Agency eavesdropping is putting the idea of inherent presidential powers to the test.