White House Counsel Al Gonzales has told the President that he can attack Iraq without Congressional approval.
This is entirely in keeping with the policy of the Bush White House. From the day Bush was inaugurated, he and his minions have made it abundantly clear that they intend to run the country exactly as they see fit, without oversight or input from the people who nearly elected him.
Bush ran as a uniter, not a divider. But with Congress hanging on a razor's edge between the two parties and his own mandate in considerable dispute, he proceeded to pursue a right-wing agenda on taxes and the environment, an agenda so radical it lost his party the Senate in less than half a year.
His administration's policy on oversight has ever been clear, since he signed an illegal order barring release of the papers of former presidents and subsequently famously refusing to release information about the genesis of his energy policy.
Bush's oft-reported emphasis on personal loyalty--aside from increasing his resemblance to strongarm dictators like, oh, Saddam Hussein--is undoubtedly at the core of his administration's go-it-alone activities. Anyone loyal to him will undoubtedly fall right in line; anyone who disagrees with him is prima facie disloyal and an enemy, so there's no reason at all not to do exactly what he wants, and certainly not to compromise.
September 11, 2001, handed him, in my opinion, the only issue that could possibly have earned him a second term. Immediately, his special policies leapt into action: secret arrests, secret interrogations, secret detentions.
At least one American citizen captured on American soil by civilian authorities is being held prisoner without being charged or permitted access to a lawyer.
Now, Bush tells us we must invade Iraq. Why? The message of his administration is clear: that's not our concern. They are the government (never mind those peskies in Congress and the courts), and they'll do what they decide needs to be done.
Perhaps they were asleep in Civics class in junior high school, but America, you see, is a democracy. Cheney asserts that Iraq is developing ABC weapons. Yeah, well, I can assert that Cheney has a cancerous mass in his pelvis. Neither assertion is a suitable basis for government policy in a democracy.
I'll grant that it is possible, even likely, that Bush and Cheney are getting information in their daily intelligence briefings that substantiate their claims about Iraq. But this is a democracy. If you ask me to go to war, you have to convince me. Show me the evidence. Our theory of government simply does not permit security to be purchased with secrecy.
But, no. That's not the Bush administration way. We elected them, surely we should just get out of their way and let them run things?
But, see, we also elected Congress. And we have an independent judiciary. And both of these guys' jobs include making sure that the folks in the middle branch keep themselves under control.
I can't understand why Gonzales would be allowed to make the decision he did. Only someone blind with arrogance would not see that such an announcement would piss off everyone in Congress. They take their prerogatives seriously in the Capitol. Republicans and Democrats alike in the Senate have said that Bush had darn well ask for their approval.
And the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has reached a verdict strongly rebuking the government for attempting to close hearings on nothing more than its own say-so. The Sixth Circuit is not exactly a liberal bastion of thought here, despite their strong record on civil liberties, but their opinions are rock-solid and well-respected.
I enjoy watching the administration get smacked around for its arrogance. But I'd really prefer to have an administration that tried to govern properly, not by issuing diktat to the tractable masses.
Cf. various FindLaw articles and resources.
Posted by Greg at August 27, 2002 11:31 AM