Imperial Presidency

President Bush has made unprecedented use of so-called "signing statements" in approving legislation, statements which say "he reserves the right to revise, interpret or disregard a measure on national security and constitutional grounds." While spokesman Tony Snow says that these are not acts of civil disobedience, they are evidence that this President feels entitled to go it alone, not necessarily follow the laws he signs, and act as if he, and he alone, understands what is in the interest of US national security.

This is a complete subversion of the key principles of checks and balances found in our Constitution. No one branch of government is to exercise the sort of power this President has seized for himself.

The Congress seems helpless to do anything about it for political reasons. Republicans don't want to attack this President too harshly because it may damage their party's prospects both in the '06 midterm elections and the '08 presidential election. Democrats are running scared from the "weak on national security" tag.

Cases regarding these types of issues are difficult to deal with in the courts due to the fact that with all the secrecy, it is a challenge to find an individual to bring a case. Groups like the ACLU can file suit, and have, but such suits are slow in moving. It is also unclear how this very Republican Supreme Court (they are not conservative- believing in limited government- they are Republican) will handle such cases when they arrive.

This President (and his surrogates) who lied about the nuclear capacity of Iraq, who lied about the al-Qaeda-Iraq connection, who's administration has maintained Guantanamo Bay with its policies of mistreating prisoners and holding them indefinitely without legal counsel, who's administration has been widely reported to have maintained secret facilities in other nations and has sent some captured individuals to nations known to practice torture, who has denied the applicability of the Geneva Conventions to "enemy combatants," who has seen Abu Ghraib and Hadditha on his watch, and who is willing to leak information when it serves his purposes (Valerie Plame) but attacks leaks when they demonstrate his constitutional abuses (NSA wiretapping and Treasury Dept. tracking of financial information)... is this the person we wish to possess unchecked powers?

On this issue, liberals and conservatives can unite- this is a government, and a President, out of control, operating outside the appropriate constitutional limitations. Balance and restraint must be restored.

GP