Democracy on the Brink

Anyone who thinks that BushCheney (or any president) should be able to take whatever action he (or perhaps someday, she) deems necessary should read Jacob Weisburg's article in Slate. Weisburg notes that BushCheney's assertion of authority is a fundamental change in American democracy.

"...Even if one assumes that every unknown instance of warrant-less spying by the NSA were justified on security grounds, the arguments issuing from the White House threaten the concept of checks and balances as it has been understood in America for the last 218 years. Simply put, Bush and his lawyers contend that the president's national security powers are unlimited. And since the war on terror is currently scheduled to run indefinitely, the executive supremacy they're asserting won't be a temporary condition...."[snip]

Reading the recent brief authored by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Weisburg finds a sweeping assertion of executive authority.

"...This somewhat daffy monarchical undertone accompanies legal reasoning that recalls Alice's conversation with the March Hare. 'AUMF' [authorization to use military force passed by Congress in 2001 after the 9-11 attacks]is understood by the Justice Department to expressly authorize warrant-less surveillance even though the resolution that Congress passed neither envisioned nor implied anything of the kind. The president's insistence that he alone can divine the hidden meaning of legislation is of a piece with his recently noticed practice of appending 'signing statements' to bills—as in, 'by signing this anti-torture bill into law, I pronounce it to signify that it has no power over me.' Similarly, in his white paper, Bush as much as declares: 'I determine what my words mean and I alone determine what yours mean, too'...."

Sandra Day O'Connor wrote that "war is not a blank check" for presidential authority. BushCheney has ignored that decision. Unless Samuel Alito acts very differently as a Supreme Court Justice than he has acted as conservative activist and federal judge, BushCheney will have plenty of blank checks.

American Democracy will pay the bill.