Gephardt Scandal Beginning
More on the Dick Gephardt debacle: It was not a misquote, it was not out of context and here's the CSpan video to back it up. Via Volokh: At around 43:45, Dennis Kucinich, another Democratic presidential candidate makes a very similar statement. Then at 44:40, Gephardt's rather short speech starts, and at 45:40, he makes the statement that the AP quotes, agreeing with Kucinich.
Do we really want a President who thinks that the President has the power to overcome "any wrong thing the Supreme Court does" using an Executive order? I know lots of people think various actions of the Bush Administration are unconstitutional; I too disagree with some of the Administration's positions, for instance on the alleged power to detain all unlawful combatants (including U.S. citizens captured on U.S. soil) with no judicial review. I hope the Supreme Court agrees, and decides against the Administration. But I'm pretty confident that if the Supreme Court does so decide, this Administration will comply with the Supreme Court's order.
Gephardt and Kucinich are promising that they'll flout those orders. Seems to me that they should be taken to task for this, and severely.
And from IP on how this compares to the Trent Lott scandal: Lott just wished that Strom Thurmand had succeeded in subverting the Constitution. Gephardt is promising to do it himself.
Do we really want a President who thinks that the President has the power to overcome "any wrong thing the Supreme Court does" using an Executive order? I know lots of people think various actions of the Bush Administration are unconstitutional; I too disagree with some of the Administration's positions, for instance on the alleged power to detain all unlawful combatants (including U.S. citizens captured on U.S. soil) with no judicial review. I hope the Supreme Court agrees, and decides against the Administration. But I'm pretty confident that if the Supreme Court does so decide, this Administration will comply with the Supreme Court's order.
Gephardt and Kucinich are promising that they'll flout those orders. Seems to me that they should be taken to task for this, and severely.
And from IP on how this compares to the Trent Lott scandal: Lott just wished that Strom Thurmand had succeeded in subverting the Constitution. Gephardt is promising to do it himself.
# | June 24, 2003