[Vision2020] McCain "Furious" Over Bush "Out" On Congressional Bill Banning Torture

[Ted Moffett]

BUSH CREATES AN "OUT" WHEN SIGNING BILL BANNING TORTURE

http://www.kare11.com/news/national/national_article.aspx?storyid=128050#

Sen. John McCain thought he had a deal when President Bush, faced with a
veto-proof margin in Congress, agreed to sign a bill banning the torture of
detainees.

Not quite.

While Bush signed the new law, he also quietly approved another document: a
signing statement reserving his right to ignore the law. McCain was furious,
and so were other lawmakers.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is opening hearings this week into what has
become the White House's favorite tool for overriding Congress in the name
of wartime national security.

"It's a challenge to the plain language of the Constitution," the
committee's chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa, said in an interview with
The Associated Press. "I'm interested to hear from the administration just
what research they've done to lead them to the conclusion that they can
cherry-pick."

Apparently, enough to challenge more than 750 statutes passed by Congress,
far more than any other president, Specter's committee says. The White House
does not dispute that number, but points out that Bush is far from the
nation's first chief executive to issue them.

"Signing statements have long been issued by presidents, dating back to
Andrew Jackson all the way through President Clinton," White House
spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday.

Specter's first hearing Tuesday is about more than the statements. He's been
keeping a laundry list of White House practices he bluntly says could amount
to abuses of executive power -- from warrantless domestic wiretapping
program to sending up officials who refuse on national security grounds to
answer questions at hearings.

But the hearing also is about countering any influence Bush's signing
statements may have on court decisions regarding the new laws. Courts can be
expected to look to the legislature for intent, not the executive, said Sen.
John Cornyn, R-Texas., a former state judge.

"There's less here than meets the eye," Cornyn said. "The president is
entitled to express his opinion. It's the courts that determine what the law
is."

But Specter and his allies maintain that Bush, in practical terms, is doing
an end-run around the veto process in the name of national security. In the
sixth year of his presidency, Bush has yet to issue a single veto.

Rather than give Congress the opportunity to override a veto with a
two-thirds majority in each house, he has issued hundreds of signing
statements invoking his right to interpret the law on everything from
whistleblower protections to how Congress oversees the USA Patriot Act.

"It means that the administration does not feel bound to enforce many new
laws which Congress has passed," said David Golove, a law professor at New
York University who specializes in executive power issues. "This raises
profound rule of law concerns. Do we have a functioning code of federal
laws?"

Signing statements don't carry the force of law, and other presidents have
issued them for administrative reasons -- such as instructing an agency how
to put a certain law into effect. When a president issues such a document,
it's usually inserted quietly into the federal record.

Bush's signing statement in March on Congress's renewal of the Patriot Act
particularly riled Specter and others who labored for months to craft a
compromise between Senate and House versions, and what the White House
wanted. Reluctantly, the administration gave in on its objections to new
congressional oversight of the way the FBI searches for terrorists.

Bush signed the bill with much flag-waving fanfare. Then he issued a signing
statement asserting his right to bypass the oversight provisions in certain
circumstances.

Specter isn't sure how much Congress can do check the practice. "We may
figure out a way to tie it to the confirmation process or budgetary
matters," he said.

By Laurie Kellman, Associated Press Writer
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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