Hail Ceasar

It had its manhood removed fully and completely when President George W. Bush signed the renewal of the Patriot Act a month ago, on March 9, 2006, and began praising the strong bill. All the elected representatives and senators watched, some clapped, some worried. But this legislation at least included some provisions demanding that the president and his Justice Department would at least have to report back to the Congress about their activities, every so often.

So everyone won at least something.

Or so it appeared until Bush slipped behind the curtain and very quietly wrote a "signing statement" which dictated how he, the president, would interpret the Patriot Act of 2006.

Despite any language to the contrary, the Administration will not report to the Congress any sort of activities that the president’s people weigh as unwise. That was the last snip, legislators now sing alto.

Bush has taken his so-called ‘wartime powers’ to their pinnacle. He has, of course, used this rare power, this "signing statement" before, of course.

Congress passed a law forbidding the torture of any detainee in United States custody. Bush signed it. Then he quietly issued a "signing statement" declaring that he, the president, could ignore the provision if he thought harsh treatment of a prisoner was needed to get information.

Translation: there was no law restricting torture, Congress notwithstanding.

There was also last December’s revelation that Bush was wire tapping Americans, supposedly to catch any terrorists. That is illegal. A president can tap out-of-country phones all he likes, that is permitted. But tapping Americans has always been forbidden; Americans are supposed to be free people and listening to them without a court granting and issuing a wiretap order is not allowed. That is, of course, except for Bush, who declared his ‘wartime powers’ gave him the ability to do that.

Translation: there is no law that applies to Mr. Bush and would prevent his tapping Americans, Congress notwithstanding.

Now, the need to report anything is also done away with, Congress notwithstanding.

Bush of course made these "signing statements" low-key affairs. But they are, of course, the last word.

After Democrats and Republicans hammer out some of the weightiest matters ever to cross the House of Representatives and Senate floors, after they study all the aspects, think through the political consequences, figure how the votes will help or hurt their individual political futures, after the money aspects are calculated, and after all the considerations that make a piece of legislation an instrument that all sides can live with, when all that happens, the wording becomes law. It may be ugly and hard to enforce, but it is at least a single piece of paper that Washington can at least say is the law of the nation. Passed by both elected branches, it is, for better or worse, law.

No one can dispute that one fact; this is United States law.

Undisputable reality: this legislation governs.

Except for George W. Bush, who waves a magic ‘wartime power’ wand and makes the laws say exactly what he wants to make them say. fIt is like a wizard’s wand. Poof, the law says what I say it says.

Oh sure, there have been a few "signing statements" in the past. But not like this; Bush changes everything of importance.

Sadly, there has been no reaction to this welter of legislative‘refurbishing.’ Bush has made the Congress a sideshow while he completes any actual law making on his own.

And he does not even bother to hide it.

Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont entered something in the Senate Judiciary Committee record to the effect that the president is supposed to faithfully execute the laws and not "cherry pick" the laws he wishes to follow. But Bush’s camp says that this is not at all anything unusual and just a bit of routine paperwork. "Very standard language" declares the White House, that’s all.

Really, why don’t you Congressional type just quietly go back to sleep and ignore all this Constitutional mumbo jumbo. Just let Gorge handle it. And instead of standing on their House seats and their Senate seats and screaming that the executive branch is running crazily over American history, they are reacting basically the way George has asked, but of course the majority are all of Bush’s Republican Party, there is no longer any ‘check and balance.’

For some in Congress, especially the Democrats who have been shunted aside by the GOP majority, this may be a campaign tactic: Let the president have all this rope and he will hang himself.

But while the Republicans go along and the Democrats are largely silent, Bush is going way, way too far. He is torturing prisoners, tapping American telephones and computers, and now he will not provide information that the Congress requests.

Sitting quietly while Bush ruins the nation, while hoping to pop in for a corrective presidency after three more years, is too slow a process. The damage being done is to vast. Essentially this policy of silence and go-along to get-along is assuring that George W. Bush has three more unchallenged years to change this self-governing nation into a fascist state, and he has done much of the groundwork already.

Bush is – no mistake about it – dictatorially running this country.

Congress’ has no true power left.

Anyone with eyes can see, now, that Bush and his group of pseudo-leaders care nothing about who represents whom. To the nation’s misfortune, Bush has elevated himself to Caesar.