Yes, but so far constitutional rights have only been suspended in times of crisis, or times of just plain hysteria.
What about this war on terror deal then, is that going to go on forever ?. That would make the temporary rollback, which as you say has precedent, be in effect permanent.
Actually, IIRC the supreme court ruled ex post facto that Lincoln did not have the authority to do that. You won't be seeing that happen again. Look, I realize Bush is not the best President we've ever had. In fact I would probably classify him in the lower part of the middle. But after next year he will be gone and I think it's obvious he wields little influence over congress now. In 2009 we will have a new President and although I do not know who it will be, I can tell you when their term is up everyone will be happy to see them go. Thats just how it is here.
How about the imprisonment of Japanese and Japanese-American nationals during ww2, the hunt for forgein 'agitators' following the war with spain, Maccarthyism. There are certainly more examples of civil rights suspension than Lincoln. Now imagine you lot elect Guliani, the war on terror isen't going to end with Bush.
It may turn out to be temporary, and people will look back at aspects of the war on terror as yet another one of these episodes of limited civil rights, but the jury is still out.