The Imperial Presidency 2.0
Sunday, January 7th, 2007 by RLRFrom The NY Times
Editorial
Observing President Bush in action lately, we have to wonder if he actually watched the election returns in November, or if he was just rerunning the 2002 vote on his TiVo.
That year, the White House used the fear of terrorism to scare American voters into cementing the Republican domination of Congress. Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney then embarked on an expansion of presidential power chilling both in its sweep and in the damage it did to the constitutional system of checks and balances.
In 2006, the voters sent Mr. Bush a powerful message that it was time to rein in his imperial ambitions. But we have yet to see any sign that Mr. Bush understands that — or even realizes that the Democrats are now in control of the Congress. Indeed, he seems to have interpreted his party’s drubbing as a mandate to keep pursuing his fantasy of victory in Iraq and to press ahead undaunted with his assault on civil liberties and the judicial system. Just before the Christmas break, the Justice Department served notice to Senator Patrick Leahy — the new chairman of the Judiciary Committee — that it intended to keep stonewalling Congressional inquiries into Mr. Bush’s inhumane and unconstitutional treatment of prisoners taken in anti-terrorist campaigns. It refused to hand over two documents, including one in which Mr. Bush authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to establish secret prisons beyond the reach of American law or international treaties. The other set forth the interrogation methods authorized in these prisons — which we now know ranged from abuse to outright torture.
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Dear TBL,
On the day Joe Biden (D-DE) announced his candidacy for POTUS he was too frieghtened to answer with the courage of a leader. Read this response to Tim Russert from Meet the Press (1/7/07):
MR. RUSSERT: …there’s really little Democrats can do. Why not cut off funding for the war?
SEN. BIDEN: I’ve been there, Tim. You can’t do it.
MR. RUSSERT: Why?
SEN. BIDEN: You can’t do it. It’s—what—because it made sense in the Constitution when you said you could cut off funding when you had no standing army. We have a standing army with a budget of hundreds of billions of dollars. You can’t go in and, like a tinker toy, and play around and say, “You can’t spend the money on this piece and this piece andâ€â€”he—able—he’ll be able to keep those troops there forever constitutionally if he wants to.”
Got That!!!! Bush has the right for eternal unchecked war making powers. The ability of the people, thru their elected representatives, to stop the war by a vote to cease funding does not exist in the U. S. Constitution. Is he correct? Of course not, he is just too cowardly to answer the question forthrightly.
You appear to forget that Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution gives the power to declare war exclusively to the Congress. The President, as Commander-in-Chief, may decide _how_ to execute the war, but only Congress can decide when to start and stop it.
Not if you ask Dem and Pres. hopeful Sen. Biden.
Okay, you got me. Joe Biden appears to forget…