alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

February 12, 2008

Globe Candidate Survey on Executive Power

by AltHippo @ 5:48 pm. Filed under Bush, 2008 Elections

A very interesting link here, where the Boston Globe’s Charlie Savage asks the presidential candidates questions about presidential power. I’ll get to McCain’s answers in just a sec, but first I wanted to mention how I found the link. It was on a blog post by Andy McCarthy, age 10. Here’s what Andy says:

I wonder whether, if, er, O’Bama becomes president, someone will explain to him that the United States Senate does not ratify treaties. The Senate consents to treaties. The president ratifies them — and can void them unilaterally.

The president can void a treaty unilaterally? I don’t think so. The closest thing I can find to that is that a treaty is void if it’s declared unconstitutional (FindLaw ref). Allegedly, McCarthy was a constitutional legal advisor to Reagan, so the fact that he’s saying stuff like this is bothersome. It may be that unilaterally voiding a treaty is one of those made-up superpowers that the Unilateral Executive types conjured up during their magic mushroom phase.

Anyway, some of McCain’s thoughts on Executive Power are interesting. Like this:

If Congress defines a specific interrogation technique as prohibited under all circumstances, does the president’s authority as commander in chief ever permit him to instruct his subordinates to employ that technique despite the statute?

No. Article I, Section 8 gives Congress that power. Unless the president chooses to willfully violate the law and suffer the consequences, he must obey the law.

Unless I’ve completely missed the point of the FISA hearings, that’s precisely the issue. If the president defies the law, are there any consequences? So far the consequences have been that senators such as McCain are put to the inconvenience of having to draft legislation to make the president’s wrong-doing legal. Other than that, having the president willfully violate the law looks like an attractive option.

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hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.

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