Beyond Accountability: King George Does As He Pleases

Remember how Bush backed down and agreed that the USA would not torture people any more? Turns out he had his fingers crossed behind his back.

When signing the bill, and more than 500 others like it, Bush has added a little statement which basically says "unless I say otherwise".

An absolute must-read article from Knight Ridder calls this "a little-noticed device that has become a favorite tool of presidential power in the Bush White House":

Experts say he has been far more aggressive than any previous president in using the statements to claim sweeping executive power - and not just on national security issues.

"It's nothing short of breath-taking," said Phillip Cooper, a professor of public administration at Portland State University. "In every case, the White House has interpreted presidential authority as broadly as possible, interpreted legislative authority as narrowly as possible, and pre-empted the judiciary."

...

In some cases, Bush bluntly informs Congress that he has no intention of carrying out provisions that he considers an unconstitutional encroachment on his authority.

"They don't like some of the things Congress has done so they assert the power to ignore it," said Martin Lederman, a visiting professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. "The categorical nature of their opposition is unprecedented and alarming."

...

The roots of Bush's approach go back to the Ford administration, when Dick Cheney, then serving as White House chief of staff, chafed at legislative limits placed on the executive branch in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal and other abuses of power by President Nixon. Now the vice president and his top aide, David Addington, are taking the lead in trying to tip the balance of power away from Congress and back to the president.

They may soon have an ally on the Supreme Court...

Reagan adopted the strategy and used signing statements to challenge 71 legislative provisions, according to Kelley's tally. President George H.W. Bush challenged 146 laws; President Clinton challenged 105. The current president has lodged more than 500 challenges so far...

Skeptics say the president and his advisers overlook the Constitution's checks and balances, noting that the Framers had a deep distrust of excessive executive power, having rebelled against a king.

It may be no coincidence that this story breaks just as the Alito hearings begin:

Twenty years ago, a Reagan administration lawyer proposed that when the president signs a bill passed by Congress, he should use the occasion to declare how he interprets it.

"The President's understanding of the bill should be just as important as that of Congress," wrote Samuel Alito in a 1986 memo. Spelling out those thoughts "would increase the power of the Executive to shape the law," he added.

But hush! What's that sound in the distance? Oh, just the usual foolish pro-Bush bleating from the mind-numbingly stupid fools at the The Weekly Standard:

Enemies, being extra-legal, need to be faced with extra-legal force.