Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Blatantly ignoring the law

All right. I'm shocked. And I'm not being facetious here. I am truly shocked. Look at this beginning to an article entitled "The White House Threatens to Ignore Congress":

"The President has the ability to exercise his own authority if he thinks Congress has voted the wrong way."-- Tony Snow, January 8, 2007

We've jumped the shark. If this idea doesn't outrage the American population, the media and the opposition party (and even his own party), then we've lost track of what America is all about. Do we have a constitution or don't we?
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If you asked whether a president could do this in an eighth grade civics class and anyone answered -- "Yes, a president can exercise his own authority if he thinks Congress voted the wrong way." -- you would unquestionably fail them. That is not the correct answer. At least not in our system of government.


Look, I know Bush has been acting this way for a long time - what with his signing statements and all. But for Tony Snow to come right out and claim such a level of executive authority this publicly is truly sinister. I can't believe he actually said that. Here's more from the article:

You know what this kind of "executive authority" used to be called before? The divine right of kings, dictatorial power, authoritarian rule. I would like anyone to explain how a president in our constitutional form of government can claim the right to ignore laws passed by the legislative branch.
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This is madness. We are supposed to be a country of laws. What do we do when we have a president who expressly tells the country that he is not constrained by the law?


It is madness. You know it is. Now, are the Democrats going to do anything about it? That's what I'm waiting to see.

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