NEW YORK, Jan 17: Al Gore, former US vice president, delivered a devastating indictment of President George Bush on Monday in a major speech before 3,000 people at Washington DC’s Constitution Hall.

“A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government.”

He said that in year five of the Bush-Cheney interregnum, “America’s Constitution is in grave danger”.

The much-anticipated speech opened with the assertion that “the American values we hold most dear have been placed at serious risk by the unprecedented claims of the administration to a truly breathtaking expansion of executive power.”

While Mr Gore stopped short of echoing the call by Represen-tative John Conyers for an exploration of whether the misdeeds of the president and vice president merit impeachment — Mr Gore did say that the time had come for the Congress to hold this administration to account.

“I call upon members of Congress today to uphold your oath of office and defend the Constitution. Stop going along to get along. Start acting like the independent and co-equal branch of government you’re supposed to be,” Gore told a cheering crowd.