Posted on 01/31/2017 6:36:31 AM PST by SeekAndFind
It is a very simple proposition. Our Constitution vests all executive power — not some of it, all of it — in the president of the United States. Executive-branch officials do not have their own power. They are delegated by the president to execute his power. If they object to the president’s policies, their choice is clear: salute and enforce the president’s directives, or honorably resign. There is no third way.
No one knows this better than high-ranking officials of the Department of Justice. That is why President Trump was right to fire Acting Attorney General Sally Yates.
Over the weekend, President Trump issued an executive order temporarily restricting the admission into the United States of aliens from various Muslim-majority countries, as well as aliens from Syria and elsewhere who are claiming refugee status. Naturally, this has triggered protests by Democrats and the Left. They erroneously claim that Trump’s executive order violates the Constitution, statutory law, American tradition, and human decency.
For inexplicable reasons, the new president left Yates in place to run the Justice Department in anticipation of the confirmation of Senator Jeff Sessions. A faithful Obama-appointed progressive, Yates obviously knew which way the political wind was blowing in her tribe.
Like most Democrats, Yates objects to the president’s executive order. Fair enough. But she is not a political operative, she was a Justice Department official — the highest such official. If her opposition to the president’s policy was as deeply held as she says, her choice was clear: enforce the president’s policy or quit.
Instead, she chose insubordination: Knowing she would be out the moment Senator Sessions is confirmed, she announced on Monday night that the Justice Department would not enforce the president’s order. She did not issue this statement on the grounds that the order is illegal. She declined to take a definitive position on that question. She rested her decision, rather, on her disagreement with the justice of the order. Now, she’ll be a left-wing hero, influential beyond her heretofore status as a nameless bureaucrat. But she had to go.
To make an analogy, there are many federal judges who oppose abortion. They apply Roe v. Wade even though they disagree with it intensely, because their duty is to obey superior courts. As every official in the Justice Department knows, if one disagrees with the law one is called upon to apply, or the policy one is bound to enforce, one is free to resign. Staying on while undermining government policy is not an act of courage. It is an act of sabotage.
It was foolish of President Trump to leave officials such as Acting Attorney General Yates in place. The president has issued a raft of executive orders in his first eight days. His obvious intent is to change governance significantly, which means he needs entirely new personnel. Yates never should have been in the position to undertake her grandstanding in the first place — but at least that particular error has now been corrected.
Trump’s new acting attorney general will enforce immigration order.
The principle is the same as when Truman fired MacArthur.
I’m the one who got elected. I call the shots.
All this winning makes Chuckie Schumer cry.
She’s not a martyr, Chuckie. She’s a Democrap party hack.
Obama’s entire presidency was predicated upon the proposition that his subordinates could enforce or not enforce the law according to its adherence to their progressive principles. The AG was simply doing what her previous Chief chartered her to do. The change brought about by President Trump is far deeper than a changing of the guards. It goes to the primacy of law over personal privilege.
This will give Sally a lot of free time to sit at home and crochet herself a “vagina hat”.
Heck, the principle is that same as with anyone who gets fired for not doing their job.
“Why Sally Yates Had to Go?”
It’s very simple: Because President Trump decided she had to go.
Memo from the President...
There is no bed wetting in extreme vetting Sally, you’re fired...
CNN called this incident “the Monday Night Massacre” in a headline last night.
I hope they escorted her out immediately....packed her crap in boxes and thru it out after her.
This essay is why NR is more and more irrelevant.
The left doesn’t care about logic or rationale. Why all the verbose contortions? The left just doesn’t care.
Just say the truth succinctly and be done with it: She was a bomb-throwing leftist.
She was insubordinate to her boss.
Very simple.
How many times did Steinbrenner fire Billy Martin ?
All this winning makes Chuckie Schumer cry.
Poor Chuckie the Clown. I think we ought to send him some diaper pins to up up his diapers in these horrible times. Just another bought and paid for politician and a terrible actor at that.
Steinbrenner and Martin ... Now that was a soap opera for the ages.
Trump knows how to capitalize on these opportunities.
When the Harkonen plant reveals itself, he destroys it with incisive executive action — “remove and replace.”
He remains on page one. His fans are bolstered. The enemy is cowered.
We know darn well that underling DOJ managers are also still there and need to be removed ASAP. Hopefully Sessions can do that TOMORROW at the latest!
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