It’s hard to decide which is more egregious: the gall of John Yoo and John Bolton warning Barack Obama to stay within the constitutional limitations of the presidency, or the outrageousness of the New York Times decision to give these two fascists a platform.
I have said on numerous occasions that both the courts and the Republicans would suddenly discover that the president’s powers are limited, once a Democrat was elected. It will take a while for the courts to weigh in, but the Republicans are starting even before the inauguration. Imagine John Yoo, the torture enabler, the man who said that George Bush could make and unmake law at will, telling Barack Obama that he should avoid cutting constitutional corners. The article is in the opinion section of the New York Times. I refuse to provide a link, as a tiny protest against the irresponsibility of the Times giving these two a forum.
And who are Bolton and Yoo? Well, according to the Times:
John R. Bolton, the ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006, is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of “Surrender Is Not an Option.” John Yoo, a deputy assistant attorney general from 2001 to 2003, is a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
Just a few facts are missing. Among them: John R. Bolton is also the man who became ambassador to the United Nations because George Bush chose to cut constitutional corners by giving him a recess appointment after his nomination failed to pass the Senate. John Yoo is the guy who authored the torture memo, which Kevin drum aptly summed up as follows:
Basically, the president can authorize any action at all as commander-in-chief in wartime. Congress can’t bind him, treaties can’t bind him, and the courts can’t bind him. The scope of power the memos suggest is, almost literally, absolute. And since this is a war without end, the grant of power is also without end.
The New York Times gives these guys space to lecture Obama on constitutional niceties. Will there ever come a time when the “liberal” media will stop enabling these people?
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