by Jer
"This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table." George W. Bush, Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 22, 2005
"Now that is most defiantly not a Christian publication!"In my usual seat at Bella Vita Coffee, I look-up from my copy of Rolling Stone to see Buzz Allegro standing there with a smile on his face.
"Oh, before I forget, I think this is yours. I didn't mean to run off with it." He hands me my missing copy of Sojourners magazine.
"No problems Buzz. How ya been?"
"No complaints. It's Jerry, right?" he says as rounds a seat adjacent to my own and makes himself comfortable.
"You remembered."
"What can I say? That last conversation we had stuck with me. So, Rolling Stone magazine, huh? Reading anything good?"
I reveal a sinister smile. "Nothing a hard-core conservative like yourself wants to hear."
"Know thy enemy," he responds with a matter-of-fact shrug.
I give him a suspicious look. "Do you mean that?"
"Sure."
"Don't say I didn't warn you." I flip the magazine up so he can get a good look at the cover. Buzz's eyes roll back into his head leaving me quite certain he saw the characicature of George W. Bush with a dunce cap on his head and a by-line that inquires, "Is George W. Bush the Worst President Ever?"
"Normally I would have left this one on the rack," I begin "but when I saw that the article was written by a Princeton historian, I knew I could trust it more than the biased ramblings of a Rolling Stone staff writer."
"Considering who's publishing it, I'd still question the dude's credibility."
"Good point, but I still wanted to give it a read."
"Well go ahead," he says with a hint of reluctance. "What does it say? What nonsense has the media cooked-up this time?"
I let the last comment slide.
"First off, Sean Wilentz, the guy from Princeton University who wrote this, compares Bush to the generally accepted three greatest Presidents and the three worst Presidents."
"Washington, Lincoln and FDR are the great ones, right?"
"Yup and James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson and Herbert Hoover are at the bottom of the bird cage."
"Andrew Johnson? Isn't he the guy on the twenty dollar bill?" he asks.
"No, that's Andrew Jackson."
"Ok, never mind."
"In the case of the three greats he say the following..." I pause as I look for the words I read just moments before, "...'they rallied the nation, governed brilliantly and left the republic more secure than when they entered office.' And of the bottom three he says, 'they divided the nation, governed erratically and left the nation worse off.' Then he goes on to explain that Bush falls into the last group."
I glance up at Buzz and the expression on his face tells me that he so desperately wants to say something.
"Shall I continue?" I ask him with one brow raised.
"Sure. Why not?" Not exactly a response born out of conviction.
"Mr. Wilentz goes on to breakdown the Bush presidency into categories. Bush at war. Bush at home. Presidential miscon..."
"Okay, okay. Just get to the meat and potatoes," he unapologetically interrupts.
"Alrighty. On the topic of war he points out that guys like Lincoln and FDR made an effort to be inclusive and involve those from the opposing political party so that the war was a truly 'national struggle.' Bush, on the other hand, has done just the opposite and frozen out the Dems."
"Can I respond now?" he asks leaning forward.
"We both know that's more of an announcement than a question."
He ignores my comment.
"First of all, this is a different time period and the relationship between the two parties is much more contentious. The democrats are still pissed-off that the GOP went after Clinton, so now that a conservative is in office, we all know that they won't support Bush so he's just had to move on without them.
"Second, Bush had to send an immediate message to the terrorists and he couldn't just wait around while Congress started singing frick'n kum-by-yah. He had to react. If he hadn't, we might have sent a message of passivity to the enemy and we'd be facing a 9/11 all over again."
He was getting himself worked-up.
"They sing kum-by-yah while Congress is in session?"
He's getting good as ignoring my smart-ass remarks.
"Well Buzz, I think the point he was trying to make was that even after he put his war plans into action, Bush still continued to freeze-out the dems and has not welcomed their input."
"Why should he?" he responds. "They're the opposition!"
"I thought the terrorists were the opposition."
"You know what I mean."
"Sadly, yes I do." I return my gaze to the magazine, "Getting back to the article, he addresses some concerns that Bush has assumed more power than is actually prescribed to the Presidency by the constitution."
With exasperation, "Let me guess. The NSA?"
"Actually Buzz, no. Did you know that whenever a President signs a piece of legislation into law, that he can tack-on what's called a 'signing statement'?"
"A whah?" Mouth left hung open.
"A signing statement. It is a declaration by the President of how he will interpret the law he just signed into being, even if the interpretation goes completely against the will of congress. It's a neat little trick a President can use to avoid having his veto over-turned."
"That's legal?"
"Wilentz refers to it as 'constitutionally dubious' but yeah, it must be legal."
"That awesome!"
"How is that awesome?" I fire, somewhat taken aback. "It basically allows a President to do whatever they want to do."
"Yeah, but Jerry, think about it. In the case of Bush, it allows him to circumvent any liberal nonsense that comes across his desk. That's a good thing."
"I'm all for avoiding nonsense, liberal or otherwise, but what if in the process of avoiding it, your being nonsensical yourself?"
"Ok dude, now you're not making any sense."
I ease back into my chair. "Ok. I heard about this whole thing a few weeks ago on Kieth Olbermann's show on MSNBC."
"Never seen it," he interrupts. "If it isn't on Fox News, I don't trust it."
"Did you know that the Fox News Channel has been proved to lower your IQ?"
"Yeah, whatever."
"I know. That's silly. How do you lower zero?"
He doesn't smile. So I continue.
"Of all the Presidents, nobody has added one of these 'signing statements' to a law more than Bush. Bill Clinton used the signing statement 140 times over an eight-year period. In six-years, Bush has used them over 750 times. That means he has potentially nullified 750 laws. That would also explain why Bush on is track to be only the second President to go through two-terms without vetoing a single bill. The first was Thomas Jefferson."
"If he's blocking liberal legislation, I'm still not seeing what the big deal is."
"First of all, that's a big 'if'. Second, if you want to block something, play by the rules and use the veto. These signing statements are only supposed to be used on constitutionally questionable provisions within a law. Are you telling me that congress has sent 750 bills to the White House all with constitutionally questionable provisions? And before you answer, let me remind you that we're talking about a congress that has been controlled by the republicans for his entire Presidency. So either the republican President or the republican Congress isn't doing their job correctly."
He sits and ponders what I have said.
Finally, he breaks the silence. "It could happen."
"Right." I take a deep breath. "Then let's switch gears and let me ask you this. As a republican, how do you expect a conservative to run the budget?"
"The answer is in your question. I expect them to be conservative."
I feel a little guilt for leading him into this one. "Then explain to me Buzz, why has President Bush borrowed more money on behalf of the US Government than the rest of the other 42 Presidents combined? $1.05 trillion to be exact."
"Um..." he thoughtfully hesitates. "Maybe he got a great interest rate?"
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