{"id":7305,"date":"2006-05-03T09:40:02","date_gmt":"2006-05-03T13:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7305"},"modified":"2006-05-03T09:40:02","modified_gmt":"2006-05-03T13:40:02","slug":"specter-asks-why-bush-can-cherry-pick-what-he-likes-and-what-he-doesnt-like-in-the-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/specter-asks-why-bush-can-cherry-pick-what-he-likes-and-what-he-doesnt-like-in-the-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Specter asks why Bush ‘can cherry-pick what he likes and what he doesn’t like’ in the law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, the [tag]Boston Globe[\/tag] ran a deeply disturbing item<\/a>, highlighting the fact that [tag]Bush[\/tag] has “claimed the authority to [tag]disobey[\/tag] more than [tag]750[\/tag] [tag]laws[\/tag] enacted since he took office.” [tag]Congress[\/tag] has passed the bills, and the [tag]president[\/tag] has signed them into law, but Bush keeps issuing “[tag]signing statements[\/tag]” explaining his dubious authority to ignore provisions of the law whenever he wants to.<\/p>\n

On Monday, several top Senate Democrats condemned<\/a> the president’s approach to constitutional duties. Yesterday, a top Senate Republican joined them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, accusing the White House of a ”very blatant encroachment” on congressional [tag]authority[\/tag], said yesterday he will hold an oversight [tag]hearing[\/tag] into President Bush’s assertion that he has the power to bypass more than 750 laws enacted over the past five years.<\/p>\n

”There is some need for some oversight by Congress to assert its authority here,” [tag]Arlen Specter[\/tag], Republican of Pennsylvania, said in an interview. ”What’s the point of having a statute if . . . the president can [tag]cherry-pick[\/tag] what he likes and what he doesn’t like?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s a good question. I can only hope Specter is sincere in asking it. He has a habit of talking tough, but failing to follow through<\/a>. We’ll see what happens here.<\/p>\n

At the risk of sounding optimistic, the hearing is slated to be a direct challenge to the president’s conduct.
\n<\/p>\n

Specter said he plans to hold the hearing in June. He said he intends to call administration officials to explain and defend the president’s claims of authority, as well to invite constitutional scholars to testify on whether Bush has overstepped the boundaries of his power.<\/p>\n

The senator emphasized that his goal is ”to bring some light on the subject.” Legal scholars say that, when confronted by a president encroaching on their power, Congress’s options are limited. Lawmakers can call for hearings or cut the funds of a targeted program to apply political pressure, or take the more politically charged steps of censure or [tag]impeachment[\/tag].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Responding to Bush’s habit, [tag]Specter[\/tag] added, “It’s a very blatant encroachment on [Congress’s constitutional] powers. If he doesn’t like the bill, let him veto it.”<\/p>\n

It sounds like Specter is burdened by pre-9\/11 thinking. He apparently doesn’t understand that Bush has to be able to sign, alter, and ignore any law he chooses, or the terrorists win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, the [tag]Boston Globe[\/tag] ran a deeply disturbing item, highlighting the fact that [tag]Bush[\/tag] has “claimed the authority to [tag]disobey[\/tag] more than [tag]750[\/tag] [tag]laws[\/tag] enacted since he took office.” [tag]Congress[\/tag] has passed the bills, and the [tag]president[\/tag] has signed them into law, but Bush keeps issuing “[tag]signing statements[\/tag]” explaining his dubious authority to […]<\/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-7305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7305","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=7305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}