BARRONS Editorial Commentary

Unwarranted Executive Power

The pursuit of terrorism does not authorize the president to make up new laws

By THOMAS G. DONLAN

Unnatural Disaster

...Administration lawyers and the president himself have tortured the Constitution and extracted a suspension of the separation of powers...

...a 72-hour emergency or a 15-day emergency doesn't last four years...

..Putting the president above the Congress is an invitation to tyranny. The president has no powers except those specified in the Constitution and those enacted by law. President Bush is stretching the power of commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy by indicating that he can order the military and its agencies, such as the National Security Agency, to do whatever furthers the defense of the country from terrorists, regardless of whether actual force is involved....

...Willful disregard of a law is potentially an impeachable offense. It is at least as impeachable as having a sexual escapade under the Oval Office desk and lying about it later....

It is important to be clear that an impeachment case, if it comes to that...would be about the power of Congress to set wiretapping rules by law, and it is about the obligation of the president to follow the rules in the Acts that he and his predecessors signed into law....

[informed members of Congress]...scared of being called names, as the president did last week when he said: "It was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in a time of war. The fact that we're discussing this program is helping the enemy."

Wrong. If we don't discuss the program and the lack of authority for it, we are meeting the enemy -- in the mirror.

And so Thomas G. Donlan speaks.

Hell is most definitely a cold place right now as 1) I join with the RNC:

who 2) seems to be warring on the side against Christmas?!