…unitary executive and Commander in Chief powers (used in the signing statement) clearly signify that President Bush is asserting that he is constitutionally entitled to commit torture if he believes it would assist the gathering of foreign intelligence. President Bush nullified a provision of statute that he had signed into law and which he was then obliged to faithfully execute.
Bruce Fein, June 27, 2006, Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Torture and White House protest courtesy of signing statements. War supporters in the background exercise their constitutional rights by suggesting that the protesters wires be turned live. WikiMedia Commons and MatthewBradley, Creative Commons
Perpetual Power Consolidated
The perpetual consolidation of presidential power is the purpose of these statements. One interpretation has this anomaly emerging in response to declining presidential power as a result of the Viet Nam War and Watergate. In reaction to these events, chief executives, particularly the current Bush, tasked their Office of Legal Counsel to find a ways to accumulate more power for the executive branch.
While this effort has achieved spectacular results, I argue that the diminished presidential powers after Nixon were more in line with the correct vision of the Constitution’s authors. Their skepticism regarding absolute power was based on first hand experience with rule by a mad monarch plus strong historical evidence. The Parliamentarian victory in the English Civil War brought the possibility of popular rule to the British Isles. As good students of history, they were aware of how that promise was undone by the restoration of monarchy, tyranny by definition, leading to the aggregation of power in the hands of one – the king.
The progress of the United States since the 1950’s is marred by one failure after another due to the delusions allowed by solitary executive functioning. The net gains from the following executive actions are negligible, the losses irredeemable: Viet Nam; massive civil rights violations related to voting, employment, and First Amendment freedoms; the Iran-Contra affair; the several hundred military incursions in foreign lands; 1,000 U.S. military installations in over 60 countries; and the pervasive tragedy of Iraq.
These adventures concocted by presidential tyranny reflect more on the need to control the human lust for power than they do on any rational policy. The costs are subtracted directly from progress made in science, commerce, and the expansion of the creativity and benefits by a population willing to work, experiment, and achieve.
A Whimper Not a BangFormer Nixon counsel and journalist John Dean discussed the Bush abuse of signing statements. He anticipated a strong reaction from Congress:
In short, Bush's signing statements, which are now going over the top, are going to cause a reaction. It is inevitable. If Republicans lose control of either the House or Senate - and perhaps even if they don't, if the subject is torture or an egregious violation of civil liberties -- then the Bush/Cheney administration will wish it had not issued all those signing statements. John Dean 1/13/06
Wishful thinking for a legislative body which somehow keeps forgetting these words from the Constitution: “The Congress shall have the power … To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.” (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1)
The Republicans lost control of both the House and the Senate. But, alas, the reaction of Congress to the unitary executive and his scribbling is barely noticeable. Perhaps the next president will begin his term by attaching a simple note to the first legislation he or she signs: “I will take care that the laws of the United States are faithfully executed.”
ENDS
Resources:
Index of Presidential Signing Statements 2001-2007
2001-2007 George W. Bush Index to the Signing Statements
Twilight of Democracy: The Bush Plan for America. Van Bergen
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