He may not be much of a reader but President Bush is pretty good with a pen. He's attached signing statements to 1100 laws, as the Boston Globe notes, "more than all previous presidents combined".
Senator Kerry has joined Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) in support of the "Presidential Signing Statements Act of 2007", which will seek to curb and to roll back the Presidents abuse of power.
Senator Kerry spoke of Bush's fondness for the pen in his Senate floor speech during the Alito fillibuster in January, 2006.
Senator Kerry issued the following press release on Monday:
Senator John Kerry today announced that he will co-sponsor legislation aimed at preventing the President from writing so-called “signing statements” when he signs bills – a little known measure that allows the White House to effectively circumvent Congress. Under the bill, a president could not issue a signing statement if it substantially altered the original legislation. Kerry co-sponsored the legislation with Senator Arlen Specter (R-Penn) and the measure could be voted on as early as this month if it is added as an amendment to the defense spending bill.“The Bush Administration’s abuse of signing statements is clearly unconstitutional and renders the Constitution’s system of checks and balances null and void,” Kerry said. “With these statements, the President has effectively subverted the law and the legislative process without actually ever using a veto. No administration should be allowed to cherry-pick legislation this way. I look forward to working with my colleagues on this legislation and I want to again thank the Boston Globe for shining a bright light on this abuse.”
Comments (4)
Posted by wisteria | July 11, 2007 12:48 PM
Powerful video. It shows just how much President Bush ignores the will of Congress and indirectly we the people, in order to make sure that he maintains absolute control. President Bush is an abuser of power and control. Senator Kerry was on this a year ago, I am happy to see their is bipartisan agreement on the matter of signing statements now.
Posted by Faith | July 11, 2007 7:28 PM
Thanks, wisteria. It's good to see these guys reach across the aisle when necessary. Almost got that Webb amendment today, but not quite. Four more. Keep your fingers crossed.
The Alito floor speech was great. This is just a small part, and the Senator's tie looks battery operated, but still...
Sorry for the video quality. Sometimes it's just like that.
Posted by fedup | July 11, 2007 7:49 PM
I agree with everything you said Wisteria. I'm wondering if this amendment that Kerry is introducing with Specter (PA) will have to have 60 votes. It seems like anything that needs to be passed to make Bush act correctly is always met with the republicans wanting 60 votes. What happened to that 109th Congress republican majority that always demanded "up or down votes", what a bunch of hypocrites.
Posted by GV | July 11, 2007 8:16 PM
Fedup, I heard Durbin (or was it Reid?) talking about that on the floor today.
Hell, the Republicans sounded like a bunch of parrots in the 109th. "Uprdown, uprdown, squaaaakkkkk." It was one of their most annoying talking points. Hypocrites is right.