Dear A-Letter Reader:
You may think the current President of the United States, the late King of France and the late Mayor of Jersey City, N.J. don't have much in common -- but they do.
Frank "Boss" Hague was Mayor of Jersey City from 1917 until his retirement under a cloud of scandal in 1947. His name is synonymous with early 20th century big city American machine politics known as "bossism." Told by a subordinate city employee that an order the Mayor issued could not be carried out because it was illegal, Hague retorted with a phrase that became infamous -- "I am the law!"
More elegant and eloquent was the 17th century French monarch, Louis XIV (1638-1715), who is alleged to have said in reaction to those who wanted to maintain separation of powers with a guarantee of representative government in the parliament: " L'État c'est Moi!" -- "I am the State!"
The finality of those words, spoken with a note of casual self-assurance, made clear the king's determination to have his way. As an absolute monarch, Louis XIV saw himself as personifying the state and through his deeds, demonstrated an impetuous disregard for representative government and the will of the people. Louis believed that "his power was derived from God and that he was responsible to God alone." Sound familiar?
And now we come to the President of the United States of America, George Walker Bush, outlaw.
The word "outlaw" suggests the American Wild West (maybe Texas?) and denotes, according to the dictionary, a fugitive from the law or one who acts contrary to or forbidden by law, as in an illegitimate seizure of power.
Six months ago I wrote in this space about a report from a publication called Capitol Hill Blue, concerning an event that was alleged to have occurred in the White House Oval Office attended by congressional leaders discussing the extension of the PATRIOT Act. Many provisions of the Act, rushed through Congress only weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, caused so much concern that both liberal and conservative groups opposed renewal in the harsh form President Bush had demanded. (He won; they lost.)
According to Capitol Hill Blue, Republican leaders told Bush that his unyielding push to renew the worst provisions of the Act without safeguards could further alienate conservatives: "I don't give a goddamn," Bush is reported to have said. "I'm the president and the commander-in-chief. Do it my way." "Mr. President," an aide in the meeting supposedly said; "There is a valid case that some of the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution." "Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush retorted. "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"
Now comes even more damning evidence that President Bush has intentionally claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, specifically asserting, (forget the U.S. Supreme Court), that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution. (See LINK below).
While he has asserted this unprecedented power quietly many times, it came to light with the disclosure of Bush's domestic spying program, in which he ignored a law requiring judicial warrants to tap the telephones of Americans. He has done this by filing "signing statements" - official documents in which a president lays out his legal interpretation of a bill for the federal bureaucracy to follow when implementing the new law. The statements are recorded in the Federal Register.
David Golove, a New York University law professor who specializes in executive power issues, said Bush has cast a cloud over "the whole idea that there is a rule of law," because no one can be certain of which laws Bush thinks are valid and which he thinks he can ignore. A president who ignores the court, backed by a Congress that is unwilling to challenge him, Golove said, can make the Constitution simply "disappear." (And what if you are the victim of this disappearing act?)
Bruce Fein, a deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration, said the American system of government relies upon the leaders of each branch "to exercise some self-restraint." But Bush has declared himself the sole judge of his own powers, he said, and then ruled for himself every time. "This is an attempt by the president to have the final word on his own constitutional powers, which eliminates the checks and balances that keep the country a democracy," Fein said. "There is no way for an independent judiciary to check his assertions of power, and Congress isn't doing it, either. So this is moving us toward an unlimited executive power."
Or as Louis XIV or Boss Hague would have said: "I am the law!"
That's the way that it looks from here,
BOB BAUMAN, Editor
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Cato Institute has just published an extensive report documenting the Bush Administration's ever-growing usurping of power. The report is titled,
"Power Surge: The Constitutional Record of George W. Bush."
To read the entire report, go to: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6330