(2006-03-13) — Sen. Russ Feingold today introduced a measure in the Senate to censure President George Bush for his conduct surrounding what the Wisconsin Democrat calls an “illegal” eavesdropping program run by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Sen. Feingold’s bill calls for the president to receive a verbal reprimand from the Senate for violating the U.S. Constitution, as well as a period of “time out” in which Mr. Bush will be required to sit in the corner of the Oval Office and to think about what he has done.

According to the text of the legislation, the president will have one minute of time out for each patriotic American whose civil rights were violated when the NSA tapped terrorist communications.

Sen. Feingold, a likely 2008 presidential candidate who co-sponsored the landmark Campaign Finance Reform Act, said he’s taking this aggressive step so that “in the future Americans will be able to say ‘Feingold’ without saying ‘McCain’ first.”

The McCain-Feingold measure eliminated the corrupting influence of big money from political campaigns.

A rival version of the censure bill, backed by moderate Republicans, calls for a one-week disciplinary period during which Air Force One, the presidentÂ’s plane, would be grounded.