All of my Republican friends like to give me a hard time because they think I never draw cartoons that pick on Democrats. Well, here ya are. But now to make up for it, you need to read the column below, which is more Bush-bashing than I've done in a few months:
Some of the Latin we were taught as History Majors are the phrases “Rex Lex,” and “Lex Rex.”
I’m not entirely certain which means which, but one roughly translates, “The king IS the law,” or at least “the king is above the law.”
This refers to absolutist rulers like the King George III against whom we fought our Revolutionary War, and Kaiser Wilhelm II who loused up the diplomacy and foreign policy left him by Otto von Bismarck and entangled Europe in World War I.
Waaay back during Robin Hood’s time, the English were sick of the absolutist Prince John (who was really just the substitute monarch for his brother Richard the Lion Hearted, who was off fighting the Crusades.) Those clever Brits made John sign a thing called the Magna Carta, which basically said that not even the king was above the law, but instead actually, the LAW is king.
We yanks like that idea so much that we adopted one big über-law called the Constitution. Bottom line is, in the United States, the Constitution is sovereign, over states, and over government officials; both law makers and those charged with executing the laws. They’re sworn to uphold and defend it, not circumvent it or erode it’s basic principles.
According to the Boston Globe, “President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.”
He has done this with things called “signing statements,” in which a President explains which part of a law he plans to enforce or not enforce when he signs bills into law that have been passed by Congress.
The American Bar Association has expressed their concern that President George W. Bush’s use of signing statements has been excessive and “contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers”
Two glaring examples were when Bush claimed to be able to wiggle out of Congress’s ban on the use of torture and when he claimed the right to tap phone lines without first seeking a judge’s warrant.
A great controversy has been brewing over whether or not the new Congress should prevent President from sending a surge of more troops to Iraq. Many Bush supporters site the Constitutional division of powers. They claim that only the President is the Commander-in-Chief of American military forces.
The Constitutional problem with that line of reasoning is that the Constitution gives Congress, not the President, the power to “declare war,” “raise and support armies” and “make rules concerning captures on land and water.”
Unfortunately for this President, Congress has not declared war. Bush can use the rhetoric of “the War on Terror” all he wants, but Iraq did not attack the United States, or have any part in the attack that was made on us by terrorists. Almost four years after Bush ordered the invasion, we still have not declared war on Iraq.
“The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it,” James Madison cautioned. “It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature.”
Last week, hand written notes from Vice President Dick Cheney were entered into evidence in the perjury and obstruction of justice trial of Cheney’s former Chief of staff, Scooter Libby. The notes suggest that the Vice President would rather have Libby go down than Carl Rove, President Bush’s Deputy Chief of Staff for blowing the cover of CIA agent Valerie Plame in order to silence and/or get even with her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson because he criticized the Bush administration for misrepresenting intelligence in order to convince Congress, the United Nations, and the American public to let them invade Iraq.
Witnesses seem to have implicated Cheney, not Libby in leaking Plame’s identity. This could be to the Bush administration what Alexander Butterworth’s revelation that there were tape recorders in the Oval office was to Richard Nixon.
Republicans like John Warner of Virginia and Chuck Hagel are gradually coming around. They’re now supporting the Senate resolution opposing the President’s buildup of troops. Will it be another Arizona Republican, this time John McCain who will visit the President and talk sense to him, the way that Barry Goldwater did with Nixon in 1974?
This column highlighted just three ways in which George W. Bush likes to think of himself as above and beyond our 230 year old system. I’m not calling for impeachment, just stronger oversight and accountability. Should impeachment come, I hope Congress targets Cheney first. Bush could beat the Democrats to history by appointing Elizabeth Dole his replacement Vice President. Then she’d be the first woman President when Bush resigns or is removed from office. I think it would be fitting, since her husband Bob was Gerald Ford’s running mate.
Ted Mallory lives in Charter Oak and teaches at Boyer Valley Schools in Dunlap. ‘Ted’s Column’ has appeared weekly in the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper since 2002. If you’d like to see any of Ted’s editorial cartoons bigger and brighter, you can visit http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2
"War is Gods way of teaching Americans Geography" ~Anonymous
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