Trifler, Fibber, Sophist, Spy: How Bush Abolished the Constitution: "Monday's White House news conference showed President Bush at his craven worst. He defended his decision to authorize spying by citing his reliance on - as he put it - 'the constitutional authority to protect our country. Article II of the Constitution gives me that responsibility and the authority necessary to fulfill it.' That's the sort of misleading inaccuracy you'd expect from a fast talker in a high school debating match. You don't expect it from a president, though this president has lowered the bar of credible discourse so much that American political discourse usually reeks of barroom skank. Article II does not give the president a blank check to do as he will, in time or peace or war. Article II is pretty specific. It lays out electoral law, qualifications, matters of succession. It states with unequivocal clarity that 'President shall communicate to Congress' by various means. It spells out the Oath of Office, which maybe the president had in mind when he referred to the 'responsibility and the authority necessary' to protect the country. The Oath, however, says nothing about abrogating all other constitutional powers in deference to the presidency, no matter what the circumstances. To the contrary: "I do solemnly swear(or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." President Bush is confusing protecting his power and self-fulfilling prerogatives (see "enemy combatants," secret prisons, open-ended detentions without charge, etc.) with protecting and defending the Constitution. Note that Article II considers the president's responsibility toward the Constitution to be supreme-beyond his responsibility to the nation: Principle above immediacy, law above expediency. In his news conference Monday Bush simply rewrote the Constitution to suit, soothe and sanction his crimes.
Section 2 of Article II does refer to the president's role as Commander-in-Chief. But here's where this president, like every president since Ronald Reagan, has expressly misread this clause, which says nothing about the president being Commander-in-Chief of the nation-of people like you and me, of the school bus driver, of Exxon's employees, of anybody not wearing a military uniform. "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 actual Service of the United States." That's all. Grant him the Air Force and the Marines on top of that. But no one, and nothing, else is under his military command. (John Lukacs, the historian, wrote in 2003 of the "unnecessary and unseemly habit" of president's "quite wrong" salutes as they step off planes or choppers, "especially George W. Bush, who steps off his plane and cocks a jaunty salute.") What Section 2 of Article II does require the president to do is seek the advise and consent of Congress son various matters in executive and foreign policy purviews. Blank checks? Extraordinary powers in time of war? Executive privilege? Executive prerogative? Nada, nada, nada, nada. One last thing Article II does address:"
- posted by geoff @ #