Andrew Sullivan: "We Don't Need a New King George"
Andrew Sullivan’s new essay, “We Don't Need a New King George” is online at Time. Sullivan looks at Bush’s expansive use of signing statements as a way to declare himself immune from laws passed by Congress. Sullivan notes that this is not a partisan issue:
A President…has every right to act unilaterally at times to defend the country. But a democracy cannot work if the person who is deputed to execute the laws exempts himself from them when he feels like it. Forget the imperial presidency. This is more like a monarchical one. America began by rejecting the claims of one King George. It's disturbing to think we may now be quietly installing a second one.