Of Course He Did

Yesterday, Bush once again proved that he thinks he's a king, not a president:

President Bush reserved the right to ignore key changes in Congress's overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency — including a requirement to appoint someone with experience handling disasters as the agency's head — in setting aside dozens of provisions contained in a major homeland security spending bill this week.

Besides objecting to Congress's list of qualifications for FEMA's director, the White House also claimed the right to edit or withhold reports to Congress by a watchdog agency within the Department of Homeland Security that is responsible for protecting Americans' personal privacy.

In our system, if the President doesn't like a law, he gets to veto it. He doesn't get to ignore it. This is high school civics, folks, and there's nothing particularly complicated about it. Those who wish to make it complicated by invoking fringe theories like the unitary executive and then pushing it past the breaking point do this country, and the institution of the Presidency, no favors.

And by the way, by invoking his executive authority to appoint incompetents like Michael Brown to head up FEMA, Bush just makes himself look like a total ass.