… But, then, perhaps no future president will ask
for such congressional involvement in the gravest decision government makes
— going to war. Why would future presidents ask, if the present administration
successfully asserts its current doctrine? It is that whenever the nation
is at war, the other two branches of government have a radically diminished
pertinence to governance, and the president determines what that pertinence
shall be. This monarchical doctrine emerges from the administration's
stance that warrantless surveillance by the National Security Agency targeting
American citizens on American soil is a legal exercise of the president's
inherent powers as commander in chief, even though it violates the clear language
of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was written to regulate
wartime surveillance.… George
Will
Republicans have run amok. They control Congress, the White House,
the radio waves, even the only medium on which the vice president deigns to
disseminate information to we the people. Enough.
Tonight on “Scarborough Country,” one of the topics
was “Dump Dick?”.
The Dick Cheney shooting incident
will, in a way, go away. And, in a way, not — ever. Some things stick.
Gerry Ford had physically stumbled only once or twice in public when he became,
officially, The Stumbler. Mr. Ford's stumbles seemed to underscore a certain
lack of sure-footedness in his early policies and other decisions. The same
with Jimmy Carter and the Killer Rabbit. At the time Mr. Carter told the story
of a wild rabbit attacking his boat he had already come to be seen by half
the country as weak and unlucky. Even bunnies took him on.Same with Dick Cheney. He's been painted as the dark
force of the administration, and now there's a mental picture to go with the
reputation. Pull! Sorry, Harry! Pull!
Today's
podcast (also found here)
combines today's posts, here,
here, here.
It's the last of this week, with a Monday – Thursday schedule. Enjoy.
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