Bush out to beef up presidency

The Detroit News/Drudge Report ^ | 05.20.02 | Bill Straub / Scripps Howard News Service

[callisto]

Critics claim office is more potent now than at any time in recent history.

WASHINGTON -- It's not a bad job considering it comes with a rent-free mansion and door-to-door limousine service, but President Bush maintains that the position he holds as the leader of the free world should come with an additional perk -- power.

[galt-jw]

power to the people, right on!

[smith288]

For beginners, Mr Fein, there is the Energy stuff that dems seem to think is public domain when its a group of experts in the field of energy counseling the president. The president doesnt have to give those papers up. Lil Dasshole thinks so though.

[Scholastic]

Bush scares me.

[callisto]

Bush scares me.

Why? By helping to maintain and preserve the separation of powers laid out in The Constitution?

I have an obligation to make sure that the presidency remains robust and that the legislative branch doesn't end up running the executive branch," Bush said

[johniegrad]

I prefer the overt statements about his intentions in regards to the power of the Executive Branch. This contrasts with the "get away with what you can" approach we've seen previously. If the cards are out on the table about the intentions of the president, then opponents can use the options available to them to challenge that consolidation of power. This is an above board approach regardless of how much or how little power you believe any individual branch should have.

[johniegrad]

BTW, the media will increase the focus in the upcoming months on White House "secrecy" and on this issue of "beefing up" the Executive Branch. Look for the Democrats to try to make GWB into a Nixon style character during the upcoming campaigns. It is a calculated ploy to discredit the president.

[Miss Marple]

What you want the President to do is unconstitutional and impossible. Get some knowledge of how the Constitution and the law work, please.

Now Fidel Castro has that type of power. Perhaps you would care to move to Cuba?

[freeeee]

Article II of the Constitution enumerates the limited powers of an executive branch that are to be tempered by checks and balances of the two other braches of government. This was done in direct response to the abuses from a highly powered executive - namely King George II.

It is an absurd assertion that the powers of the executive office have been diminished over the last 30 years. They have grown at every turn. Indeed, the executive now acts as a legislature, passing laws by executive order, and waging wars absent a legislative declaration.

Since our President is so enamoured with such a strong exective branch more resembling the powers of a monarchy, perhaps it is time to begin referring to him as King George III.

[gubamyster]

Bush can start to beef up the Presidency with recession nominations. He can begin w/ Estrada & if he really wants to show how tough he is, appoint Pickering (who is still eligible because he never came up for a vote). Now that would show how much beef he has.

[SteamshipTime]

Maybe if Bush would exercise his constitutional prerogative to veto unconstitutional or uneconomic legislation, he'd find his stature increased.

[johniegrad]

Good point.

[billbears]

Why? By helping to maintain and preserve the separation of powers laid out in The Constitution?

LOL!! You're kidding me right? The office of the Presidency is so far over its Constitutional boundries it's not even funny. Go back and read the powers the President has outlined in the Constitution word for word and you'll see the executive branch hasn't been following it for over a hundred years. I like Bush, I really do. But what he's done lately, all in the name of security, is an affront to the ideals the Founding Fathers set forth for that office. Under the Constitution, most of the power was in the legislative branch with one of the houses not elected by the general public. Well, since we've thrown that away, might as well just start naming kings now and save me the hassle and the ulcers from reading about politicians that probably haven't even read the Constitution (besides selected Amendments) in the past 30 years

[jude24]

The President has no legal authority to make an executive order banning abortions; indeed, nether does Congress without a Constitutional amendment.

Prior to Roe v. Wade, it was a state matter, that is, according to the 9th and 10th Amendments, they were reserved to the States or to the people to decide for themselves.

Roe v. Wade made it a federal issue. Because of a legally debatable penumbra, the right to privacy was applied to 3rd trimester abortions in Roe, extended in Casey v. Planned Parenthood.

Of course, facts are irrelevant to the radical pro-life crowd, just like any other radical group.

(I am solidly pro-life, but not to the point that I lose sight of reality).

[stainlessbanner]

"I have an obligation to make sure that the presidency remains robust...."

Excuse me, Pres. Bush this ain't a Folger's Coffee commercial!

[callisto]

Imho I think Bush is out to reinforce his 'perrogative' not to give his daily intel briefings to Congress. The Dems are hungry like wolves right now and would like to have the Administration turn over not only past briefings, but future ones also. And we saw how well that worked on 911 after a Congressman told the media that our intel had been listening to Bin Laden, et al and they stopped using their satellite phones or whatever medium we were monitoring.

[Rowdee]

You nailed it!

[Ben Ficklin]

You are right. In fact, any shifting around of power amongst the the three federal branches is small potatoes compared to the shift of power from the states to the feds by the expansion of the General Welfare Clause and the Interstate Commerce Clause.