By Jeff Greenfield, CNN Senior Analyst

Sen. Arlen Specter, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, held hearings Tuesday on presidential signing statements.

No need to stop the presses, right?

Actually, this is a very big deal — it goes to the heart of how power should be shared between the president and Congress … and in fact it’s always been a very big deal.

Here’s the question: Can a president say when he signs a bill the Congress passed, “I’ll interpret the law as I see it”?

That’s what Bush did when he signed Sen. John McCain’s anti-torture legislation in December, asserting that ‘’The executive branch shall construe [the law] in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the president . . . as commander in chief.

That’s a polite way of saying, “If I don’t like the law the Congress passed, I’ll ignore it.”

Read More at CNN

…Really Unconstitutional!

By Dave Lindorff

Over the course of the past year, it has been discovered that President Bush, during his five years in office, has cancelled all or part of 750 laws of Congress, quietly and with the stroke of a pen. These so-called “signing statements” have been used to invalidate laws passed by Congress to do everything from require government reporting on the uses of the Patriot Act’s invasive provisions to banning torture and establishing a special investigator for corruption in Iraq.

The Senate Judiciary Committee headed by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) is finally holding hearings into this issue, but don’t expect much from a that can’t even get worked up over the White House’s failure to send over key people to testify.

Tony Snow, the president’s smarmy flak, says all those “signing statements” are simply a way for Bush to “express reservations about the constitutionality” of those laws.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), one of the president’s yes-men in Congress, says, “The president is entitled to express his opinion. It’s the courts that determine what the law is. I don’t know why the issue of presidents issuing signing statements is controversial at all.”

Well John, here’s the reason: The Constitution.

Read More at CounterPunch

Filed under: Blog, In the News, Facts: Independent Conclusions, Constitutional Crisis

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