June 24, 2007
Can Bush be Sued
for his Signing-Unsigning Spree?
Washington
George Bush has been on a signing spree since he came to the White
House turning bills into law with a stroke of his pen and then "unsigning"
with another bits and parts he doesn't like.
There were few murmurs of protest before, but now those new
Democratic guys up on the Capitol Hill are telling the President of
the United States that he is no king who could go cherry picking to
have his cake and eat it too.
He did it to make the curry of a nuclear deal that Mr. Hyde had
cooked on the Hill a little less hot for India. He also did it to a
thousand other laws with a couple of hundred - give or take a score
- signing statements.
Bush isn't the only one who has done it. Ronald Reagan did it, Bill
Clinton did it and so did every other president starting with James
Monroe, the fifth occupant of the White House. But he has signed the
most "signing statements" giving a president's own interpretation of
an oven fresh law.
But the new Democratic majority in the Congress would have none of
it. Branding it as an "imperial presidency" thumbing its nose at the
law, heads of two House panels asked the Government Accountability
Office, an investigative arm of the legislature, to look into it, as
they say.
Instances of actually not doing a few things that the president said
he does not have to do, turned out to be not as dramatic as the ones
that caused the most stir like Bush's insistence that he was not
bound by a ban on torture in US military facilities.
In one instance, US customs and Border protection, required by law
to relocate its checkpoints around Tucson every seven days to better
check illegal immigration, simply chose to briefly shut them down
from time to time in a gesture of compliance.
A constitutional lawyer suggested that GAO findings were significant
enough for the Congress to collectively take legal action against
the White House. But would it? More likely it is going to be
'business as usual' for tomorrow there may be a Democrat wielding
the presidential pen!
Money is honey, my dear candidate
Presidential hopefuls, Republican and Democratic alike, are engaged
in another frantic race - to raise more money by the end of the
second quarter. For one who has the most money by next Sunday gets a
big push in the bigger race too.
Two leading Democratic candidates, former first lady Hillary Clinton
and rising black star Barack Obama are both expected to hit the $25
million mark. The two Republican frontrunners, former New York mayor
Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney too seem
to be doing pretty well.
But if Bush's 2000 Republican challenger John McCain has found the
going "very tough", 2004 Democratic vice presidential candidate John
Edwards' campaign admits it's way behind its own modest fund raising
target.
Every presidential hopeful - 11 Republicans and 8 Democrats - is
gearing up for a sprint next week, with the wealthiest of them all
Romney, inviting his supporters for a "Dial for dollars" breakfast
and lunch event at a sports arena in Boston.
To keep the "money primary" going in the runup to a flurry of real
primaries next Feb 5, candidates are dreaming up new ways to catch
them. A dinner with Obama was the prize for four small donors, while
a few Romney supporters got to watch a Red Sox game with his son
Tag.
But New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's abrupt departure from the
Republican party last week fuelled speculation that the financial
media mogul may use his multibillion dollar fortune to mount an
independent bid for the White House - making the race really hot.
Of plastic and politics
What moves the wheels of politics in America's near cashless
society. Is it still cash - No. 2, black or white - or has the
plastic age arrived in politics too?
"Buck Starts Here", say signs on some government presses where Uncle
Sam plans to print some 9.1 billion notes this year, but some 95
percent of them will merely replace worn out currency.
More than half of US paper money totalling $784 billion in 2006 is
held outside the country by foreigners leaving less than $400
billion to support a $13 trillion economy. In 1970 the economy
needed twice as much cash.
With seven for everyone over 15, Americans held 1.7 billion credit
or debit cards in 2005. In 1996 cash and cheques accounted for 80
percent transactions, by 2010 a survey suggests electronic payments
will top 70 percent of the total.
Does the impending demise of cash augur well for politics? If
electronic money cannot be laundered, would it lead to cleaner
politics or would politicians find some ingenious ways to get more
bucks for their bangs!
Who will take the "Tumbler" out?
If the Obama campaign's "Punjab jab" sullied his fair name a tad,
the Secret Service too gave him one that he didn't particularly
relish. But at least the "Renegade" as he has been called got a head
start over all others bar one hoping to replace the "Tumbler" in the
White House.
Nothing sinister about it insist those charged with protecting big
guns. Their military bosses simply pick out the not so "secret" code
names out of their hats more out of tradition than a real security
need or a second thought about their meanings.
Bush got his "Tumbler" name when his father occupied the White House
as "Timberwolf". Jimmy Carter was "Deacon", Ronald Reagan was
"Rawhide", while Al Gore starting out as "Sawhorse" turned into
"Sundance".
But whatever a security expert who himself goes by the real name of
"Pickle" may, say conspiracy theorists, definitely see a plot in
Hillary being called "Evergreen" since her "Eagle" husband Bill
Clinton entered the Oval office.
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