[Seruzawa]

Oh yes. I expect the Bush administration to arrest Pelosi (eyes rolling).

[SE Mom]

This law will of course be enforced with great fervor:)

Excellent piece..thanks for posting.

[kittymyrib]

Jim “Ft. Worthless” Wright (D-TX) should have been arrested by Pres. Reagan for traipsing to Nicaragua to boost Little Danny Ortega’s insurgency back in the ‘80s, and that would have given pause to current Dems who undercut the powers of the Executive Branch. But no, the Logan Act is just one of those leftover laws that won’t be enforced...unless some Republican goes abroad and opens his mouth during Hillary’s administration. To the gallows with him then.

[John Leland 1789]

Alright. Does anyone other than the Administration, then, have standing to bring suit against Madam Speaker and any others involved?

[bolobaby]

No - this is wonderful. The demonrats are complaining about Bush breaking a law with his “volunteer” recess appointment. If they press that issue, he should immediately say “fine - here’s the law YOU broke. Wanna fight?”

The only way Bush is going to get any respect is if he grows a new pair of balls (the old pair seems to have fallen off).

Oh, and, while we are at it, let’s have Jimmy Carter arrested.

[stockpirate]

Yes I can see them prosecuting her, not, they let Sandy Burger go.

But this is a great palce to draw the line and prosecute her.

[Savage Beast]

Gee. Do you suppose Nancy will be indicted? Sent up the river? Impeached????

BTW, I know this is changing the subject, but is purjury against the law???

[panthermom]

There is no respect for the Constitution anymore. It is just a piece of paper written by a bunch of dead people, we have evolved past it relevancy. I doubt that the majority of our elected officials have ever even read the Constitution. We are now governed by polls, special interest groups and globalism. Those who serve in goverment are an elite protected class of people, similar the the aristocrats in England. Our President refuses to protect our sovereignty, even though, he takes an oath to do so. It’s disgusting!! I can’t even put into words the anger and sadness I feel for what my children will have to endure.

[RDTF]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070406/cm_usatoday/pelosistepsoutofbounds

Opinion
Pelosi steps out of bounds 2 hours, 15 minutes ago

Democrats in Congress have been busy flexing their foreign policy muscles almost from the moment they took power in January, for the most part responsibly. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) crossed a line this week by visiting Syria, where she met with President Bashar Assad. She violated a long-held understanding that the United States should speak with one official voice abroad - even if the country is deeply divided on foreign policy back home.

Like it or not (and we do not), President Bush’s policy has been to refuse to negotiate with Syria until it changes its behavior. That behavior is malignant. Syria has long meddled destructively in neighboring Lebanon and is widely seen as the bloody hand behind the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Syria has aligned itself with Iran and supports the violently anti- Israel groups Hezbollah and Hamas. It foments violence in Iraq by allowing suicide bombers and jihadists to cross the Syria-Iraq border.

Pelosi surely knew that as speaker - third in the succession line to the presidency - her high-profile presence in Damascus would be read as a contradiction of Bush’s no-talkpolicy. No matter that she claimed to have stuck closely to administration positions in her conversations with Assad, smiling photos of Pelosi and the Syrian president convey the unspoken message that while the U.S. president is unwilling to talk with Syria, another wing of the government is. Assad made good use of the moment.

-snip-

[RDTF]

shouldn’t this be on the sidebar? Thanks

[pyx]

Pelosi violated The Logan Act and MUST be charged.

QUOTE Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. UNQUOTE

The Constitution is clear. The Constitution MUST be enforced. Pelosi MUST be charged because she violated the Logan Act.

Pelosi's unauthorized trip to Syria explicitly against the request of the President to not go, to negotiate foreign policy for the United States is in direct violation to the Logan Act.

Enforce the Constitution now.

[NonValueAdded]

It also represents a stunning naivete on her part. I pray for the health of President Bush and VP Cheney.

[Finalapproach29er]

The most hollow Presidency since Ike.

Why did he run if he doesn’t want to use his authority?

[jackv]

bttt

[MainFrame65]

IT seems to me that this has now become another of those vital questions to be asked, again and again, of every presidential candidate.

Something like, “In light of recent and repeated contacts by unauthorized indviduals with hostile governments, usurping the Constitutional power of the President and in clear violation of the Logan Act, will you now promise to enforce the sole authority of the President to conduct foreign policy?”

[HoustonTech]

This article has been made available at the WSJ's free OpinionJournal site here:

Illigal Deplomacy

[finnman69]

Impeach Pelosi!

[TLI]

SEA ISLAND, Georgia (CNN) -- President Bush said Thursday he never authorized the use of any interrogation techniques in the war on terrorism that would violate U.S. or international laws.

"The authorization I issued was that anything we did would conform to U.S. law and would be consistent with international treaty obligations," Bush told reporters at the G8 Summit.

***

the Truman Administration argued its position in the Federal courts and asked the Supreme Court to rule that he had the "inherent authority" under the Constitution to seize the steel factories despite the fact that the Congress did not want him to do so and thus refused to give him this power.

The Supreme Court said that even though the President may have a claim to some "inherent authority" to seize these factories, once Congress has enacted laws making clear that he cannot do so, the President under our system of Government does not have the right to act outside of the law by violating Congress’ intent. In so ruling, the Court said that the where Congress has the power to legislate in a certain area (as it plainly does with regard to regulating eavesdropping on American citizens), the President is no more permitted to violate that law than anyone else is, even if he claims that doing so is necessary for him to carry out his Executive duties to protect the nation. It really does not get any clearer or more dispositive than this.

***

State of the Union Address, January 2002

THE PRESIDENT:

"But America will always stand firm for the non-negotiable demands of human dignity: the rule of law; limits on the power of the state"

Pretty clear. If the President is not exempt from the law, neither is the Speaker of the House.

[SkyPilot]

"I have no interest in investigating Speaker Pelosi committed a Felony or Treason. I am more interested in whether Scooter Libby told Tim Russert he had a bagel for breakfast, when I know darn well he had a bran muffin."

[John Galt's cousin]

bump