It's no secret to Kos readers that the U.S. is facing a constitutional crisis over the Bush administration's position on wiretaps, torture and other issues where the president is claiming the laws passed by Congress don't apply to him. While many are focusing their anger on the administration, the bigger problem in this case is with Congress. And that creates an opportunity for Democrats looking to reclaim control of the House or Senate.
Each and every member of Congress takes an oath to uphold the Constitution, yet the Republican members of this Congress, with few exceptions, are allowing a perverse sense of party loyalty to keep them from fulfilling that oath.
When they allow Bush to flout FISA or attach signing statements that state that the new ban on torture doesn't apply to him, Bush is exceeding his authority to be sure, but the more grievous failure is on the part of every Republican congressman or woman who fails to resist the White House. Their oath is about more than ritual, it is a commitment to uphold the careful balance of power that has kept this country from sliding into the kind of authorianism that our founding fathers worked so hard to prevent. When they do nothing as one branch of government attempts to upset that balance, they violate their oath.
That should be the Dem's number one issue this fall. The Republicans are violating their oaths of office by allowing Bush to place himself above the law. It gives the Dems the opportunity to keep the focus on the White House's abuse of power and creeping authoritarianism, while connecting that abuse to the actions of Congress and individual House and Senate races.