Worth reading: Mort Halperin on the danger of a president who does not consider himself obliged to follow the law:

While signing the bill containing the McCain anti-torture amendment this week, President Bush made explicit his view of the constitution. It is a frightening position which threatens the separation of powers which is at the heart of our government.

In short, the President asserts that he can decide which laws he should obey. If he believes that legislation violates what he calls the unitary presidency he will not veto the bill, but rather he will simply ignore the law. Sometimes he does that publicly and on other occasions he pretends to be following the law while secretly operating in defiance of it.

Presidential signing statements were, in fact, invented by Judge Alito, whose hearings for a Supreme Court seat starts on Monday. ...

Go read the whole post. More from Knight Ridder, "Bush using a little-noticed strategy to alter the balance of power."

Posted by Laura at January 8, 2006 10:08 AM