By Melinda Henneberger, Huffington Post

Four prominent conservative thinkers are set to launch a campaign “to restore checks and balances and civil liberties protections under assault by the Executive Branch,” arguing that, “since 9/11, the President has acquired too much power.”

Former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, who led the effort to impeach President Clinton, is one of the organizers of the effort, called the American Freedom Agenda. Others are David Keene of the American Conservative Union, writer and conservative direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie, and constitutional scholar Bruce Fein, who served in the Reagan administration as associate deputy attorney general.

At a 1 p.m. news conference today at the National Press Club, they will pitch a legislative package “to restore congressional oversight and habeas corpus, end torture and extraordinary rendition, narrow the President’s authority to designate ‘enemy combatants,’ prevent unconstitutional wiretaps, email and mail openings, protect journalists from prosecution under the Espionage Act, and more.”

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