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Now!
Suppose you were an idiot.
And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
-- Mark Twain
Over the course of the past year, it
has been discovered that President Bush, during his five years
in office, has cancelled all or part of 750 laws of Congress,
quietly and with the stroke of a pen. These so-called "signing
statements" have been used to invalidate laws passed by
Congress to do everything from require government reporting on
the uses of the Patriot Act's invasive provisions to banning
torture and establishing a special investigator for corruption
in Iraq.
The Senate Judiciary Committee
headed by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) is finally holding hearings
into this issue, but don't expect much from a that can't even
get worked up over the White House's failure to send over key
people to testify.
Tony Snow, the president's
smarmy flak, says all those "signing statements" are
simply a way for Bush to "express reservations about the
constitutionality" of those laws.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), one
of the president's yes-men in Congress, says, "The president
is entitled to express his opinion. It's the courts that determine
what the law is. I don't know why the issue of presidents issuing
signing statements is controversial at all."
Well John, here's the reason:
The Constitution.
Remember that hoary document?
It's the one you and the rest of your mealy-mouthed, high-living,
coiffed and chauffeured colleagues in Congress swore to uphold
when you took office and started collecting your salaries as
representatives of the People.
Let's take a look at that yellowed
parchment.
Regarding the powers of the
president, Article II says:
The executive power shall be
vested in a President of the United States of America.
It goes on to define that power,
saying:
The President shall be commander
in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the
militia of the several states, when called into the actual service
of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing,
of the principal officer in each of the executive departments,
upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices,
and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses
against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
He shall have power, by and
with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties,
provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall
nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate,
shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls,
judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United
States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided
for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress
may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as
they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law,
or in the heads of departments.
The President shall have power
to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of
the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the
end of their next session.
Notice, Tony and John, that
there is nothing in there about "signing statements"
or about "expressing reservations" about laws passed
by Congress.
Now let's look at what the
Constitution says about Congress and its powers. In Article
I it says:
All legislative powers herein
granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which
shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
The key word there is "all,"
which kind of precludes the president diddling around with a
law afterwards with some "signing statement."
Article I makes its point clearer,
adding that Congress has the power:
To make all laws which shall
be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing
powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the
government of the United States, or in any department or officer
thereof.
That really doesn't leave a
lot of room for presidential interpretation, does it?
So why do we care, John?
Well, let's for a moment pretend
that we all think that Bush is just a swimmingly competent president,
that he is beloved and respected by 99 percent of the public,
and that he has an unerring sense of what is right. No seriously.
Stop laughing. It's just for the sake of argumentGot your breath
back?
Okay, so suppose we then let
this towering paragon of erudition and virtue go ahead and second-guess
the Congress, and just ex out whatever laws or provisions of
laws that he deems unwise.
Well, it won't stop there.
Although the self-involved, self-aggrandizing members of Congress
may only care about who's greasing their palms tomorrow, in a
little more than two years, there's going to be another president
and another Congress.
If this president is allowed
to get away with undermining Congress' constitutional power in
this egregious manner, the next president, whether it's Bill
Frist, the Newt, Hillary Clinton or Al Gore, will take office
with Bush's definition of presidential power as his or her starting
point.
Is that what you guys want?
Why not just scrap the Constitution,
then? Why waste all that valuable space in the Library of Congress
exhibiting a document that has ceased to have any meaning?
For that matter, why are we
bothering to elect you guys? You-and here I mean the Republicans
and most of the Democrats in the House and Senate--are daily
proving that you view your own jobs as essentially meaningless.
If you can't see or admit how
this president is undermining the whole concept of separation
of powers, and establishing himself, and the presidency, as a
dictatorship in all but name, if you won't stand up in defense
of your own institution and the Constitution you were sworn to
uphold, you should all be fired, and the Congress abolished as
a massive waste of taxpayer money.
Fortunately, we have an alternative,
which is also laid out in the Constitution. That is election
and impeachment.
If you and your current colleagues
won't call the president to account over these subversive "signing
statements," we the People are going to have to oust a bunch
of you this November. Then we'll have to hold the feet of those
who are left to the fire, and demand impeachment hearings to
declare this president a perpetrator of High Crimes against the
Constitution.
CounterPunch
Speakers Bureau Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid?
CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair
are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues,
as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call
CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.
