Rule of law

The Boston Globe tells us:

President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

He does this in "signing statements," and as the New York Times explains ...

The founding fathers never conceived of anything like a signing statement. The idea was cooked up by Edwin Meese III, when he was the attorney general for Ronald Reagan, to expand presidential powers. He was helped by a young lawyer who was a true believer in the unitary presidency, a euphemism for an autocratic executive branch that ignores Congress and the courts. Unhappily, that lawyer, Samuel Alito Jr., is now on the Supreme Court...

Let that sink in. Think about rule of law. Separation of powers.

Think about this, too: one of those 750 laws is the ban on torture.

Digby dares to call this what it is, a constitutional crisis ... and reminds us what constituted an impeachable offense just a few short years ago ... and explains that the American people don't know this is happening because it's so dramatic an abrogation of democratic principles that we don't believe that it could really happen.