Whoops!! He Did It Again

Saturday, January 13, 2007

I’m thinking of a number…between 750 and 850…very important to each and every citizen. What is that number? It reflects the number of signing statements President Bush has already foisted on the American public. Yes…other presidents have made signing statements that clarify an administration’s reasoning regarding the execution of a specific statute. But, the proclivity this administration has for creating a rationale to avoid from upholding U.S. statutes boggles the imagination. Unfortunately…there is no rationale…these signing statements are absolutely NOT rooted in ANY constitutional doctrine.

The latest in this seemingly never-ending progression of signing statements involves the U.S Postal System. It would seem that our President is claiming the right to examine first class mail without a search warrant. So much for the 4th Amendment!! Of course, the ostensible justification is the “war on terror” and the fact that Bush maintains the position that a breach of a citizen’s right to protection against unlawful search and seizure is necessary to ensure national security. As was the case with some of the previous signing statements, one is amazed that the FISA court and other measures already in place would not suffice in our efforts to keep track of alleged terrorists.

The brutal truth is that these signing statements are blatantly unconstitutional. They represent a further erosion of constitutional rights that the Bush administration has vigorously prosecuted. Furthermore, this policy serves to advance the Bush policy of leadership based upon the promulgation of fear, which has become the prevailing policy. Both domestic and foreign policy have been subsumed by this insidious fiat by paranoia.

We may well ask what the founding fathers would have had to say regarding this policy…a question which we have asked for each and every one of these bogus signing statements. Of course, the answer is obvious and is implicit given any understanding of constitutional law. We must always remember that this is a country governed by the rule of law. Those very same elder statesmen would consider signing statements designed to skirt the rule of law as illegal and it also follows that they would say that such an analysis was self evident. That this administration continues to obfuscate at every opportunity and mislead and befuddle the American citizenry is nothing short of an attempt to hijack that same rule of law and to hold it hostage in the name of their campaign of fear.

Given that we now have a Democratically controlled House and Senate, it is about time for Congress to reinstate oversight. It stands to reason that these signing statements fall within their influence. We have already seen the initiation of a series of hearings intended to let the light shine upon many of these previously ignored or overlooked breaches of constitutional law. I anticipate the Senate Judiciary Committee to be VERY active in this regard and I think we need to let Senator Levin and others on the committee know how we feel about this issue.

As the expression goes…the ball is in our court and it’s now up to us to change the direction of governance we have seen over the previous six years. If we take no action, we will be able to blame no one but ourselves!!

trickster108