(NSA) Program may cut support for Bush by conservatives [View All]

[sabra]

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14254498p-15070071c.html

Program may cut support for Bush by conservatives

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Conservative voters, who have driven President Bush's job approval ratings into the low 30s as they split with him over his handling of issues such as the Dubai ports deal and immigration, threatened Thursday to push the president's standing even lower with the latest revelations about the National Security Agency and ordinary Americans' telephone calls.

Several small-government Republicans and independents who have been supporters of the president expressed deep dismay and anger at revelations the government is building a database of tens of millions of telephone numbers dialed between Americans not suspected of any wrongdoing, as part of its broad anti-terrorism effort.

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"I have no doubt it is troublesome and I would think the clear majority of conservatives - and, for that matter, liberals - would be quite troubled," said Marion Edwyn Harrison, president of the Free Congress Foundation. "It needs expansive justification, or Republicans are going to join Democrats and independents in diminishing support" for Bush.

Bob Barr, the former Georgia congressman and CIA official who has become an outspoken conservative advocate for privacy rights, took to radio and television questioning the legality of the program.