On Torture and Presidential Power

Walter Dellinger, Solicitor General in the Clinton Administration, said of powers of the president, “The way to think about the question of what unilateral authority you think the president ought to have to disregard acts of congress, you ought to think about, but just say, now who is the worst person who I can imagine that might actually be elected president and, who is the worst person, and what authority would I want that person, he or she, to have?"

That thinking is not hard to do. That worst person one can possibly imagine is currently serving in the White House.

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, in the majority opinion on the limitation of Presidential power, wrote, “A state of war is not a blank check for the president."

When the original lie about Weapons on Mass Destruction was discovered, who then authorized Bush to spend $300 billion, $3 billion a week, to decide to democratize Iraq, and, when that goal failed, to establish a stable government in Iraq, and when that failed, to continue to mindlessly Stay the Course.

Now that Stay the Course failed, Bush stands naked before the world like the emperor whose lovely clothes never were so lovely or real.
The world sees naked Bush and naked America while we weep for our lost grace.