Bush, Cheney Upbeat On Terror War

President Sees More Iraq Troop Cutbacks; Cheney Pushes Patriot Act

(CBS/AP)  "The White House is in attack mode," said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wisc., whose lone vote against the original 2001 Patriot Act grew into a filibuster at its renewal last year. "Their insistence on having it their way or the highway...has failed."

Feingold said that if the administration continues "to show no flexibility at all, then the stalemate will continue." As for whether an agreement can be reached before Feb. 3, "It may prove to be awfully tight," Feingold said.

Mr. Bush spoke a few hours before Cheney addressed the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, as part of the administration's lobbying of Congress for a permanent extension of the terror-fighting Patriot Act.

Many key provisions of the Patriot Act had been set to expire Dec. 31. Amid a debate over whether the act sufficiently protects civil liberties, most Senate Democrats and a few Republicans united against legislation that would have made several of the expiring provisions permanent while extending others for four years.

In a move the White House adamantly opposed but later accepted, lawmakers rushing toward a holiday recess merely approved a one-month extension of the law in its current form. That set the stage for the contentious debate to continue when Congress reassembles later this month. The new measure expires Feb. 3.

Cheney said the renewal of the law is vital to protecting Americans from suffering additional attacks like those on Sept. 11, 2001.

"Obviously no one can guarantee that we won't be hit again," the vice president said. "But neither should anyone say that the relative safety of the last four years came as an accident. America has been protected not by luck, but by sensible policy decisions, by decisive action at home and abroad and by round-the-clock efforts on the part of people in law enforcement, intelligence, the military and homeland security."

Cheney also defended the president's authorization of warrentless domestic surveillance after the 2001 attacks. Mr. Bush has allowed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop — without warrants — on international calls and e-mails of Americans and others inside the United States with suspected ties to al Qaeda or its affiliates.