WASHINGTON - The White House on Tuesday defended
President Bush's frequent use of special statements that claim authority to limit the effects of bills he signs, saying the statements help him uphold the Constitution and defend national security.
Senators weren't so sure.
"It's a challenge to the plain language of the Constitution," said Arlen Specter, a Republican whose Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings on the issue. "There is a sense that the president has taken signing statements far beyond the customary purview."
The bill-signing statements say Bush reserves a right to revise, interpret or disregard measures on national security and constitutional grounds. Some 110 statements have challenged about 750 statutes passed by Congress, according to numbers combined from White House and the Senate committee. They include documents revising or disregarding parts of legislation to ban torture of detainees and to renew the Patriot Act.
The exchange came during a midterm election year in which Specter, some fellow Republicans and many Democrats are highlighting concerns about the administration's use of executive power. Specter's personal list includes Bush's warrantless domestic wiretapping program, the administration's checking of phone records and the sending of officials to hearings but saying they cannot answer lawmakers' questions on national security grounds.
Specter and his allies maintain that Bush is trying an end-run around the veto process. In his presidency's sixth year, Bush has yet to issue a single veto, which could be overridden with a two-thirds majority in each house.
What surprises me about this story is that Arlen Specter is only now getting to this issue of President Bush making an end-run around laws that he does not wish to execute? There are 750 signing statements that the Bush has added to laws over the past six years--has Arlen Specter even read any of these presidential signing statements?
This is just another example of Congressional Republican PR-spin. The American public has pretty much soured on the direction the Republican Party is taking this country. President Bush's public opinion poll ratings are around 38 percent--getting perhaps a one percent increase after Zarqawi was killed. And the congressional poll ratings are not looking too good for the Republicans. Not only does the American public give Congress a 25 percent approval rating, but 51 percent of Americans say that the Democrats could do a better job in control of Congress, over that of the Republicans. Only 34 percent of Americans favor the Republicans in control of Congress. Clearly, the American public wants to change the direction this country is heading.
Specter knows that these polls can spell trouble for the Republican Party this November. He also has refused to provide any strong congressional oversight against the Bush administration scandals of intelligence-gathering on Iraqi WMDs, the NSA warrantless spying on domestic Americans, and now these presidential signing statements. These hearings by Specter are nothing more than a PR-marketing spin to show the American public that the Republicans in Congress can provide oversight against the Bush White House. Nothing will come of these Republican oversight hearings. In fact, there is a good chance that after the November elections, Specter will quietly close these hearings on the signing statements.
Politics before policy oversight.
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