FearBush.com
Title
Fear Bush
Description
The Boston Globe reported on April 30 that President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution. Bush does this when he includes signing statements on the various bills that land on his desk. Signing statements are certainly nothing new, but according to The Globe, he has used them more than all previous presidents combined. Now, one would think such a story would gather some attention or raise a few eyebrows. For some reason, the story didn't get much farther than the progressive blogosphere, since I don't remember seeing it anywhere else. Perhaps the press and the general public are more inclined to look the other way. After all, we are fighting the War on Terror ® , and we're gonna let him do whatever he wants to keep us safe, right? Well, as it turns out, not everyone is buying that line.
Today the Boston Globe is reporting that the American Bar Association has set up a task force to review the significance of these signing statements, and determine whether the president's aggressive expansion of presidential power is consitutional. While it's unclear if the findings of the ABA will have any kind of legal teeth, in the very least one has to assume that the the opinion of a group that boasts over 400,000 lawyers would certainly carry some political weight. Perhaps not, since lawyers probably aren't much more popular than the president is right now. I'm sure most people will probably take their findings and interpret them to fit whichever viewpoint they cling to. It is important to note that this task force appears to be made up of quite a distinguished group, including some Republicans. One GOP member of the task force, Mickey Edwards, is quoted in the Globe article:
``I think one of the most critical issues in the country right now is the extent to which the White House has tried to expand its powers and basically tried to cut the legislative branch out of its own constitutionally equal role, and the signing statements are a particularly egregious example of that,"
