Congress challenges Bush's claims he can ignore laws he signs

[Jon8503]

President Bush has issued hundreds of signing statements invoking his right to interpret or ignore laws on everything from whistle-blower protections to how Congress oversees the Patriot Act.

By Laurie Kellman, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A bill becomes the rule of the land when Congress passes it and the president signs it into law, right?
Not necessarily, according to the White House. A law is not binding when a president issues a separate statement saying he reserves the right to revise, interpret or disregard it on national security and constitutional grounds.

That's the argument a Bush administration official is expected to make Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who has demanded a hearing on a practice he considers an example of the administration's abuse of power.

"It's a challenge to the plain language of the Constitution," Specter 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."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-06-27-bush-signing-statements_x.htm

[Rosemary2205]

1. Specter is full of it.

If he was really concerned about the Constitution we'd have heard the worlds "articles of impeachment" out of his face a long time ago.

[Hubert Flottz]

2. Bush got away with ignoring the law all his life because of daddy's

money, so he just kept right on doing it in Washington. To The Manor Born Republicans, don't need no stinkin' laws!

[itzamirakul]

3. But now that we have allowed this to happen...now that the man

sitting in the Oval Office is allowed to follow or not follow rules and laws depending on his mood and feelings about same, then how to we think that we can ever change that? The changes that the Republicans have brought about will never let us go back to following the law the way we used to do.

[FloridaPat]

4. Only took 5 years. Wonder how they passed that Iraq resolution

in only a couple of weeks.