General George?
The Constitution makes the President the "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy" in Article II, Section 2. The President is the "Executive power" in regard to the remainder of the Executive branch.
Through his mouthpiece, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, G.W. Bush asserts that his power to order the National Security Agency, a civilian agency, to conduct warrantless wiretapping derives from his inherent powers as Commander in Chief.
Does this mean Bush considers himself to be Commander in Chief of the entire Executive branch? Does this mean Bush fancies himself a banana-Republican military dictator?
This is not an idle matter of legal technicalities; it strikes to the heart of the Constitution and the rule of law. It is made worse by the fact that many Americans consider the President to be Commander in Chief of the country, not the military.
The latter is the thinking of subjects, not citizens.
General George is not King George; he just thinks like him.
Through his mouthpiece, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, G.W. Bush asserts that his power to order the National Security Agency, a civilian agency, to conduct warrantless wiretapping derives from his inherent powers as Commander in Chief.
Does this mean Bush considers himself to be Commander in Chief of the entire Executive branch? Does this mean Bush fancies himself a banana-Republican military dictator?
This is not an idle matter of legal technicalities; it strikes to the heart of the Constitution and the rule of law. It is made worse by the fact that many Americans consider the President to be Commander in Chief of the country, not the military.
The latter is the thinking of subjects, not citizens.
General George is not King George; he just thinks like him.
posted by HH at 10:29 AM
1 Comments:
Agreed - in fact, General George thinks he IS King.
I'm beginning to wonder if "Little Boots" will willingly leave office in 2009 even if he's NOT impeached (as he should be) before then!
This from Nixon's former White House counsel John Dean, in a recent interview by Tavis Smiley:
"No president that I can find in the history of our country has really ever adopted a policy of expanding presidential powers for the sake of expanding presidential powers. And I think that's what we have going on here in this presidency."
There's a great post about this, plus links to the video, at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x938912
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