Authoritarian Regimes Are By Nature Lawless
I've mentioned the unitary executive concept before but this post should demonstrate clearly what it means to George and Co. The following will be a look at one provision of one executive signing statement out of 750+ during Bush's tenure thus far.
President's Statement on Signing of H.R. 2863, the "Department of Defense, Emergency Supplemental Appropriations to Address Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, and Pandemic Influenza Act, 2006"
Language in Division B of the Act, under the heading "Office of Justice Programs, State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance," purports to require the Attorney General to consult congressional committees prior to allocating appropriations for expenditure to execute the law. Because the President's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and take care that the laws be faithfully executed cannot be made by law subject to a requirement to consult with congressional committees or to involve them in executive decision-making, the executive branch shall construe the provision to require only notification. At the same time, the Attorney General shall, as a matter of comity between the executive and legislative branches, seek and consider the views of appropriate committees in this matter as the Attorney General deems appropriate.
In street talk, W. is saying even though the law says he is to "consult" with congressional committees, he's only going to "notify" congress. I mean honest to God, can you imagine, telling a judge, 'Judge I understand the law but I don't agree with it so I broke it cause I'm allowed'? This is a clear example of the Bush administration's lawlessness. And notice the arrogance "...the Attorney General shall, as a matter of comity between the executive and legislative...". They don't have to but just to keep peace the AG will, as he "deems appropriate", "seek and consider" other views. Dripping with condescension, even contempt.
This is how the current sitting president of the United States regards the lawmaking process and the laws themselves that have served our nation well for over 2 centuries. He did the same thing with the McCain torture bill and it passed in the senate 90-9. McCain's bill represented the American peoples' views on torture but W. doesn't care what the American peoples views are, so he issues a signing letter that says he must faithfully follow his unitary executive theory, something the laws and the constitution say nothing about, and use torture, if necessary, to protect the country.
The secrecy is key here. From the get, this group, like John Dean said in Worse Than Watergate, is more secretive than Nixon's bunch. What's to be secret about? Lots of stuff. Energy task forces with Cheney, Enron connections, vote count in Fla 2000, wiretapping, but most of all it's the Iraq mess, lots of secrets there, lots of lawbreaking.
So the way I see it the signing statements for W. are protection, flimsy, but protection, against future indictments for lawbreaking. He's playing this like the CEO president he announced in 2000 he would be. He has his lawyers. Just like he had his lawyers when he was such an unsucessful businessman. W. is always watching his back because he is lawless at heart and feckless in the real world. He was bailed out by Poppy's middle east buds and then later was silver spooned the Texas Ranger assignment. In the future when he is challenged for his lawlessness he must believe his signing letters will somehow give him an out. You know, how Ken Lay said it wasn't him it was others, he didn't know illegal stuff was going on. So too W. He's going to point to those signing letters and say his lawyers told him if he signed a letter he could break the same law he was approving. He'll say he thought all his lawbreaking was perfectly legal because lawyers told him so. George is unaccountable. He accounts to no one. It's always someone else's fault.
President's Statement on Signing of H.R. 2863, the "Department of Defense, Emergency Supplemental Appropriations to Address Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, and Pandemic Influenza Act, 2006"
Language in Division B of the Act, under the heading "Office of Justice Programs, State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance," purports to require the Attorney General to consult congressional committees prior to allocating appropriations for expenditure to execute the law. Because the President's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and take care that the laws be faithfully executed cannot be made by law subject to a requirement to consult with congressional committees or to involve them in executive decision-making, the executive branch shall construe the provision to require only notification. At the same time, the Attorney General shall, as a matter of comity between the executive and legislative branches, seek and consider the views of appropriate committees in this matter as the Attorney General deems appropriate.
In street talk, W. is saying even though the law says he is to "consult" with congressional committees, he's only going to "notify" congress. I mean honest to God, can you imagine, telling a judge, 'Judge I understand the law but I don't agree with it so I broke it cause I'm allowed'? This is a clear example of the Bush administration's lawlessness. And notice the arrogance "...the Attorney General shall, as a matter of comity between the executive and legislative...". They don't have to but just to keep peace the AG will, as he "deems appropriate", "seek and consider" other views. Dripping with condescension, even contempt.
This is how the current sitting president of the United States regards the lawmaking process and the laws themselves that have served our nation well for over 2 centuries. He did the same thing with the McCain torture bill and it passed in the senate 90-9. McCain's bill represented the American peoples' views on torture but W. doesn't care what the American peoples views are, so he issues a signing letter that says he must faithfully follow his unitary executive theory, something the laws and the constitution say nothing about, and use torture, if necessary, to protect the country.
The secrecy is key here. From the get, this group, like John Dean said in Worse Than Watergate, is more secretive than Nixon's bunch. What's to be secret about? Lots of stuff. Energy task forces with Cheney, Enron connections, vote count in Fla 2000, wiretapping, but most of all it's the Iraq mess, lots of secrets there, lots of lawbreaking.
So the way I see it the signing statements for W. are protection, flimsy, but protection, against future indictments for lawbreaking. He's playing this like the CEO president he announced in 2000 he would be. He has his lawyers. Just like he had his lawyers when he was such an unsucessful businessman. W. is always watching his back because he is lawless at heart and feckless in the real world. He was bailed out by Poppy's middle east buds and then later was silver spooned the Texas Ranger assignment. In the future when he is challenged for his lawlessness he must believe his signing letters will somehow give him an out. You know, how Ken Lay said it wasn't him it was others, he didn't know illegal stuff was going on. So too W. He's going to point to those signing letters and say his lawyers told him if he signed a letter he could break the same law he was approving. He'll say he thought all his lawbreaking was perfectly legal because lawyers told him so. George is unaccountable. He accounts to no one. It's always someone else's fault.
posted by bluester | 8:13 AM
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