Okay. I’m still mad at Specter about the N.S.A. bill, but this one I like [I hope]:
Specter Prepping Bill to Sue Bush
A powerful Republican committee chairman who has led the fight against President Bush’s signing statements said Monday he would have a bill ready by the end of the week allowing Congress to sue him in federal court.
"We will submit legislation to the United States Senate which will…authorize the Congress to undertake judicial review of those signing statements with the view to having the president’s acts declared unconstitutional," Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said on the Senate floor.
Specter’s announcement came the same day that an American Bar Association task force concluded that by attaching conditions to legislation, the president has sidestepped his constitutional duty to either sign a bill, veto it, or take no action.
Bush has issued at least 750 signing statements during his presidency, reserving the right to revise, interpret or disregard laws on national security and constitutional grounds.
"That non-veto hamstrings Congress because Congress cannot respond to a signing statement," said ABA president Michael Greco. The practice, he added "is harming the separation of powers."
Bush has challenged about 750 statutes passed by Congress, according to numbers compiled by Specter’s committee. The ABA estimated Bush has issued signing statements on more than 800 statutes, more than all other presidents combined.
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This and the N.S.A. thing are big deals, and need to be pursued. But I still think that the dropped Phase II report about the preWar Intelligence and the misuse of the Niger Forgeries should be pursued. Harry Reid shut down the Senate over it and it’s still in Limbo!
But Arlen can redeem himself with this one…
This has a certain ironic humor to it. I kept reading your blast of Specter and reading his bill and could not see the suing thing, but still I wondered why you were angry if indeed he was doing something to stop this ‘signing statement” garbage. As it turns out, you were ticked about a different deal entirely. Boy was I stupid in the first stuff and ecstatic in the second.