Bush's Garroting of Democracy

[struggle4progress]

By Robert Parry
May 24, 2006

Over the past weekend, George W. Bush and his Justice Department signaled to the U.S. press corps and Congress that they are not beyond the reach of Bush’s “plenary” – or unlimited – powers as Commander in Chief or his authority as “unitary executive,” deciding what laws to enforce and how.

On May 21, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told ABC’s “This Week” that news organizations like the New York Times could be prosecuted for publishing classified information about the “war on terror,” such as the disclosure of Bush’s secret program of warrantless wiretapping inside the United States.

The night before that TV interview, the FBI conducted an extraordinary raid on the Capitol Hill office of Democratic Rep. William J. Jefferson of Louisiana as part of a bribery investigation, raising bipartisan concerns about the Executive Branch trampling congressional rights and intimidating members of Congress ..

As Bush said after a meeting with the four top congressional leaders on Dec. 18, 2000, “I told all four that there were going to be some times where we don’t agree with each other. But that’s OK. If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.” ...

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/052306.html

[Erika]

1. He is a dictator but a dumb one

and even his own party is realizing it.

Gonzales is starting to make Ashcroft look good as far as being a political patsy with no regard for the law.

[OneBlueSky]

2. didn't the Supreme Court rule on this business of . . .

releasing classified information in the Ellsburg case? . . . like, unanimously? . . .

can anyone refresh my memory? . . .