Mark Morford is in fine fettle. Read it all, but here’s an excerpt:
How about how Bush’s insane rate of issuing those now-infamous “signing statements,” those little firebombs of judicial misprision wherein your mumbling president gets to reserve for himself the right to ignore any law he signs — yes, any law he desires: anti-torture, surveillance, you name it — whenever he feels like it, if he deems that law unconstitutional. Screw Congress. Screw the system of law. And screw, well, you.
For the record: Ronald Reagan issued 71 signing statements during his unholy term. Bill Clinton issued 105 over the span of eight years. Bush 41 signed off on 146, the previous record.
And Dubya? Well, little George has slapped his color-crayon signature on over 500 signing statements so far, reserving his right to disregard the law more times than all former American presidents combined. It is a record. It is a disgusting abuse of power. It is another thing to stack on the pile o’ embarrassment for our nation. Shall we see how high we can go before we topple and implode?
(Here is the beautiful kicker, the thing to make you shudder and sigh: As this Knight Ridder report illuminates, in 2003 lawmakers attempted to rein in Bush’s abuse of signing statements by passing a bill that required the Justice Department to inform Congress whenever BushCo decided to ignore a legislative provision. Bush signed the bill into law — but then immediately issued a signing statement asserting his right to ignore it. Ah, the nauseating poetry of it all.)