How did Obama trick ye? Oh, let us count the ways.
President Obama issued another signing statement on Friday, asserting that he has the constitutional power to disregard five sections of a supplemental appropriations bill even as he signed it into law.
Remember all the liberal angst over the evil signing statements of President Bush? It was proof, yet again, that Ole George thought himself above the constitution. He was turning the presidency into a monarchy? Surely, you recall.
Mr. Obama said that he has the power to ignore such statutes because they “would interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations by directing the Executive to take certain positions in negotiations or discussions with international organizations and foreign governments, or by requiring consultation with the Congress prior to such negotiations or discussions.”
What? Obama, ignoring Congress? Issuing – Signing Statements? Announcing his intention to ignore provisions of laws that Congress has passed and he’s signing into law?
Mr. Obama’s premise that the president enjoys exclusive control over the nation’s foreign policy in such matters echoes a stance frequently asserted by his predecessor, former President George W. Bush, in his signing statements.
Oh, the great fraud of it all!
Mr. Bush’s frequent use of the device to claim a right to bypass laws prompted criticism by the American Bar Association in 2006. Its House of Delegates called signing statements “contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional separation of powers,” and called on presidents to stop using the device and instead to veto legislation if it has sections that the president believes to be unconstitutional.
The next thing you know, Obama will be supporting FISA! He’ll be leaving troops in Iraq indefinitely! He’ll be using drones in Pakistan! Before we know it, he might even refuse to release the names of energy executives attending White House meetings!
Shortly after taking office, Mr. Obama issued a directive to executive agencies telling them not to rely on any of Mr. Bush’s signing statements to bypass a law without prior approval from the attorney general. He also promised to use the device sparingly, and only to invoke mainstream theories of the Constitution.
Just call him George W. Obama! He’s President Barack OBush.
Thanks to Opinio Juris for the video grab.
1 response so far ↓
Brian // July 2, 2009 at 2:12 pm |
Obama learned to flim-flam the voters in the seamy world of Illinois politics. Even prior, he learned the value of opportunism and hypocrisy as a brass-knuckled, self-aggrandizing disciple of Alinsky. There is nothing Obama and his minders will not renege on, and no reversal of course they will not display, so long as they think it benefits them to do so. They count on the sheeple not remembering, or not caring. I’m reminded of the scene in Orwell’s Animal Farm where someone struggles to remember if the revolutionary slogan painted on the barn that says “two legs good” used to say “four legs good, two legs bad.” The Obaman leadership doesn’t want memory. Memory is bad for them. It’s good that people like Todd are trying to help us avoid forgetting.