Listening to today’s coverage of Samuel Alito’s confirmation hearings, I wasn’t sure which reality applied: the reality I grew up in, or the reality of the alternate universe next door.
Like this unitary executive business: what the hell is that? Out of nowhere comes, to hear the media tell it, this well-precedented and widely-accepted doctrine holding that the President can, at will, ignore or overturn court rulings and laws passed by Congress.
Surely, if this is part of my everyday reality, I’d recognize it. I’d remember it. They would have touched on it in civics class or something. But no, my reality is based on a government with three equal branches, separation of powers, checks & balances. There’s an executive, sure, but he’s not unitary – he can’t just strike off on his own. Apparently, the alternate universe’s reality, where slightly different rules apply, is bleeding over into ours.
And the thing is, I don’t want to live in that reality. I want my own reality back. I want my United States of America back, my nation of laws. Now, not later. Because later, the way things are going, might mean never.
Dick 01/16/06 1:29 AM
Yeah, I followed that controversy during the Alito hearings. From what I heard, it sounded like the old pissing contest between the executive and legislative branches about power, and pissing contests are something a Hasher understands, well, at least according to unconfirmed reports about what happens when the keg runs dry.
Alito described the concept of Unitary Executive Power as, not about the extent of executive power, but does the president control the executive branch? Considering the fact that the Executive Branch of the government is way far and away the largest of the three branches (DoD, Homeland Security, Interior, BIA, Justice, etc., all fall under the Executive) of course Congress wants to control the executive, and from their point of view, the more the better.
What you are seeing is really checks and balances in action. I know these are all topics discussed with passioned debate at a Hash, but historically, it is a pendulm and right now, it is swinging toward increased executive power. Unless all historical precedents are buggered, it will swing the other way.
Paul Woodford 01/16/06 6:38 AM
I’m wondering if we can stand three more years of the pendulum swinging away from traditional American values. Sure, it’s a pendulum, so eventually it’ll have to swing back. Or will it?
Did you know DHS is opening personal mail? I didn’t. Like the “unitary executive,” there appear to be many things I don’t know.
At dinner with friends Friday night, I was the only one at the table who thought GWB’s warrentless wiretap program is wrong. Everyone else was just fine with it. I think someone even said, “what do you have to hide?”
GWB has three years left. An all-powerful unitary executive can do a lot of harm in three years.