Who writes the "Signing Statements"?

[swimboy]

Surely not the "unitary executive" himself? Where do they originate? This is the guiding hand on the tiller. Does anyone know the author of these statements?

[Ian David]

1. Could it be... maybe....

SATAN!

[marylanddem]

2. Wow is that freaky - you can smell the sulphur...

[dkofos]

3. Yes If Satan is Gonzales

[Emit]

4. I've read that it's Cheney's legal adviser and chief of staff, Addington

Read this many places, here's an example:

The officials said Cheney's legal adviser and chief of staff, David Addington , is the Bush administration's leading architect of the ``signing statements" the president has appended to more than 750 laws.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/05/28/cheney_aide_is_screening_legislation/

[swimboy]

6. Cheney--the power behind the throne

and his lackey with the legal know-how. This makes sense. Thanks.

Edited to add:

That article you provided is absolutely blood-chilling. Good lord! Terrifying.

[catmandu57]

7. That would be my thought

That the signing statements originate from deadeye's office.

[madmusic]

11. Cheney is the real president.

Bush is just a puppet no matter how much he claims to be the decider.

[madmusic]

9. Addington's influence -- like Cheney's overall

In Cheney's Shadow, Counsel Pushes the Conservative Cause

By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 11, 2004; Page A21

snip

Addington's influence -- like Cheney's overall -- extends throughout the government in his bid to expand executive power. He goes through every page of the federal budget in search of riders that could restrict executive authority. He meets daily with White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales and often raises objections to requests for information from Congress or the public, officials say. He also routinely works to defeat proposals from the State Department, where the pervasive internationalist philosophy is at odds with Cheney's neoconservatism.

Occasionally, others in the administration have sought to keep Addington out of the loop to avoid his inevitable objections. When the White House agreed, under pressure from Congress, to appoint a commission to investigate the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Cheney's office did not know about it until a reporter from The Washington Post called to inquire.

There has been something of a backlash against Addington's philosophy within the administration, where some believe his aggressive legal arguments have caused the courts to become more suspicious of executive authority. That was a common complaint when the Supreme Court in June dealt the administration major defeats in the Hamdi and Rasul cases regarding terrorism detainees.

The court ruled that U.S. citizens held as "enemy combatants" are entitled to contest the government's case in court. It also ruled that al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could ask to be set free by a U.S. judge. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote: "A state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens."

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22665-2004Oct10.html

[madmusic]

10. Fascist `Feddies' March

THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY
Fascist `Feddies' March
Through the Institutions

by Jeffrey Steinberg

The same right-wing tax-exempt foundations that are behind the Carl Schmitt revival of the past 20 years, have also bankrolled a "Schmittlerian" "march through the judicial institutions" via the misnomered Federalist Society. Founded in 1982, at the University of Chicago and Yale University law schools, the Federalist Society has promoted the dismantling of all regulatory protection of the General Welfare, while advocating the most draconian police-state excesses, typified by the Patriot Acts and the "torture memos." These have been authored by a team of Federalist Society members and allies inside the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel and the White House Office of the General Counsel—under the sponsorship of Vice President Dick Cheney and Cheney's current chief of staff and general counsel, David Addington.

The Federalist Society's modus operandi: To hijack the curriculum at major American law schools on behalf of patently anti-American "Conservative Revolution" fascist dogmas, and place a carefully screened and indoctrinated group of ambitious right-wing attorneys in key posts in the Executive Branch, and in Federal regulatory agencies, to overturn the U.S. Constitution. Federalist Society members and fellow-travellers now dominate the Office of the White House General Counsel and the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, and hold a large and growing number of Federal Court judgeships, including on the U.S. Supreme Court. Federalist Society board member C. Boyden Gray, who was White House General Counsel under President George H.W. Bush, employed Federalist Society founder Lee Liberman Otis to head up judicial screening at the Bush 41 White House; she boasted, according to Lawrence Walsh, that not one judicial appointment was made by Bush of a non-Federalist Society member.

more: http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2006/3301federalist_soc.html

[MADem]

5. Probably Harriet Asswipe Meiers!!

And it was probably Alberto TortureBoy Gonzalez before her!!!

[grasswire]

8. yikes

From the article linked:

"Knowing that Addington was likely to review the bills, other White House and Justice Department lawyers began vetting legislation with Addington's and Cheney's views in mind, according to another former lawyer in the Bush White House.

All these lawyers, he said, were extremely careful to flag any provision that placed limits on presidential power.

``You didn't want to miss something," said the second former White House lawyer, who also asked not to be named."

[MrCoffee]

12. i thought it was the White House Counsel's Office...could be wrong.