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redneckgaijinSaw this just before bed, on Ben Smith's blog at Politico.com ...
he's using a signing statement to claim the power to ignore parts of a law he doesn't like.
Specifically, he's going to continue to have special "advisers" (as he's calling the various "czars"), which have specifically been banned by the new budget agreement. He also denied the authority of Congress to block money transfers from Guantanamo prisoners to others and to prohibit the trial of Guantanamo prisoners in civilian courts.
Leaving aside the fact that I'm meh on the first two points and on Obama's (claimed) side in the third case... Obama is wrong here. Congress passed a law. The President signed it. That means the President, by his oath of office, is supposed to defend- and OBEY- that law. He doesn't get to pick and choose. He doesn't get to ignore it. He doesn't get to say the law is the opposite of what the text of the law says it is.
This is a presidential power Bush claimed to have- and which a former Senator foreswore.
Until he became President, at which point any promises to limit presidential power evaporated.
Evidently Obama, like Bush, envisions himself a king.
L'etat, c'est Obama.
he's using a signing statement to claim the power to ignore parts of a law he doesn't like.
Specifically, he's going to continue to have special "advisers" (as he's calling the various "czars"), which have specifically been banned by the new budget agreement. He also denied the authority of Congress to block money transfers from Guantanamo prisoners to others and to prohibit the trial of Guantanamo prisoners in civilian courts.
Leaving aside the fact that I'm meh on the first two points and on Obama's (claimed) side in the third case... Obama is wrong here. Congress passed a law. The President signed it. That means the President, by his oath of office, is supposed to defend- and OBEY- that law. He doesn't get to pick and choose. He doesn't get to ignore it. He doesn't get to say the law is the opposite of what the text of the law says it is.
This is a presidential power Bush claimed to have- and which a former Senator foreswore.
Until he became President, at which point any promises to limit presidential power evaporated.
Evidently Obama, like Bush, envisions himself a king.
L'etat, c'est Obama.
