Monday, January 07, 2008

Something for the Brits....

You guys sometimes say you want a constitution. No you don't. It is just annoying when the President (or in your case Prime Minister) spits on it.

Our latest is that the Prez (Mr. Above the Constitution) used something called a "Pocket Veto" to kill a war funding bill, because it let Americans tortured by Saddam Hussein file claims against Iraqi money held in our banks. The President thought this would be a hardship on the present Iraqi government.

Regardless of the logic of this argument (and there is a certain logic to it), it would be hard to explain to the voters. So the President didn't really explain it at all. Instead he didn't sign the bill while Congress was "out of session" for Christmas. That is a constitutional "Pocket Veto".

The bad news, of course, is that Congress stayed technically "in session" during Christmas so that just this sort of shenanigans couldn't happen. They want him to veto bill or sign it, per the constitution. He says no, if 1/2 of Congress was out of session - all of Congress was out of session. And he won't sign it or veto it. So, the protector of our Constitution, the highest law of the land, ignores Constitution as inconvenient.

Legal scholars say that the President is wrong and would lose any fight in court. General consensus by me is that our wussy Congress will back down after some partisan whining.

Again, let's remember that President Clinton was impeached for lying about a humer given by a non-material 3rd party in a deposition.