{"id":10401,"date":"2007-04-03T15:55:53","date_gmt":"2007-04-03T19:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/10401.html"},"modified":"2007-04-03T15:55:53","modified_gmt":"2007-04-03T19:55:53","slug":"giulianis-brand-of-authoritarianism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/giulianis-brand-of-authoritarianism\/","title":{"rendered":"Giuliani’s brand of authoritarianism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rudy Giuliani’s record when it comes to being … what’s the appropriate phrase … a “power-hungry egomaniac<\/a>” is pretty well established. But as his presidential campaign unfolds, we’re getting a much more detailed sense of how Giuliani believes an executive can and should wield power. In his case, that’s not at all encouraging.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Giuliani reportedly told the Cato Institute’s President Ed Crane that a president should have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens with no review<\/a>. Then, complicating matters, a Giuliani campaign appearance in New Hampshire raised eyebrows<\/a> even further.<\/p>\n

Rudy was asked about the Iraq supplemental. He said he finds it “irresponsible and dangerous.” Then he began to muse about, after a veto, “would the president have the constitutional authority to support them [the troops], anyway?” He said he’s a lawyer so he wouldn’t offer an opinion “off the top of his head,” then he proceeded to do just that. <\/p>\n

He seemed to suggest that Bush could fund the Iraq war without Congress providing funding, but it was confusing. In an interview with a New Hampshire TV reporter after his remarks, he seemed more categorical and said, since the war had been authorized by Congress, the president has “the inherent authority to support the troops.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

National Review’s Rich Lowry was kind enough to note that Giuliani’s comments “could be seized on by his critics to argue that he has a dangerously out-sized view of presidential powers.” Ya think?<\/p>\n

Where, exactly, does Giuliani think the president gets this “inherent authority” from? And to what other issues, pray tell, might this “inherent authority” also be applied?<\/p>\n

Giuliani, a former U.S. Attorney who should probably know a little something about this, isn’t just wrong, it’s ridiculous. As Scott Lemieux noted<\/a>, “Even John Yoo<\/i> concedes that Congress can check the President’s wartime powers by cutting off funds.” But not Giuliani — who apparently believes a president’s war powers have no checks at all<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Lemieux added, “[Giuliani] believes in the kind of arbitrary executive power that directly contradicts the core premises not just of the American Constitution but of liberal democratic constitutionalism in general, but don’t worry — he’d use it sparingly! Trust him!”
\n
\nGiuliani isn’t just demonstrating ignorance of the rule of law; he’s showing contempt for it. Glenn Greenwald explains<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It really should go without saying that (as even Bush supporter Rich Lowry recognizes) these comments ought to be a major media story. One could even argue that, standing alone, they are office-disqualifying. Particularly in light of Giuliani’s belief in process-less arrest of American citizens, this really is a complete repudiation of how our government works, of the most basic and unquestioned constitutional principles of our republic. Literally. […]<\/p>\n

Really, what country is Giuliani describing? It’s basically an open embrace of the Iran-Contra theory of Government — where Congress cuts off funding, the President can just go find a secret fund somewhere else and fund it anyway.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Remember, folks, in Republican circles, Giuliani’s allegedly a moderate<\/i> — who happens to take a more expansive view of executive power than even Yoo, Cheney, and Addington. Be afraid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rudy Giuliani’s record when it comes to being … what’s the appropriate phrase … a “power-hungry egomaniac” is pretty well established. But as his presidential campaign unfolds, we’re getting a much more detailed sense of how Giuliani believes an executive can and should wield power. In his case, that’s not at all encouraging. Over the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}