Our Constitution's balance of power provisions have taken a huge hit under Bush: first is the amassing of unprecedented power by the executive; the second is the reduction of the legislative role to simply that of an advisory group.
And now the administration is secretly undermining the judicial branch.
I will delete this diary if someone else has covered this. If not, please follow me over the fence.
The quote below is part of a letter by Senator Dianne Feinstein: http://feinstein.senate.gov
January 11, 2007
"It has come to our attention that the Bush administration is pushing out U.S. Attorneys from across the country under the cloak of secrecy and then appointing indefinite replacements without Senate confirmation. (Ed. emphasis mine) We know this is not an isolated ocurrance, but we don't know how many U.S. Attorneys have been asked to resign -- it could be two, it could be ten, it could be more. No one knows."
This letter is addressed to Attorney General Gonzales and is signed by Feinstein and Patrick Leahy.
Senators Feinstein, Leahy, and Mark Pryor have introduced legislation (Jan 11th) to prevent circumvention of the Senate's constitutional perogative to confirm U.S. Attorneys.
Feinstein also says (and we can't know if she's being disingenuous here or not) "...we have no idea why this is happening." She goes on to say:
"The Attorney General could have legitimate reasons for asking for specific resignations, or could be motivated by political concerns or worse, derailing on-going investigations. Again, we just don't know."
Legitimate reasons? Ah, Ms. Feinstein... are you referring to an administration known as The Bush Administration? And you posit legitimacy?
Here's the crux of the letter (and please go to her site and read the whole article)
"We believe that this use of expanded executive authority to appoint interim replacements indefinitely undermines essential constitutional checks and balances." (emphasis mine)
Astonishing, you say? Well no, since this change was made in a little noticed provision included in the Patriot Act reauthorization last year. Makes you wonder, doesn't it, how many other "little noticed" provisions were passed by Congress (which included Democrats)?
Feinstein makes several speculations as to why this insidious little provision might have been inserted. You can judge for yourselves, but I'd like to suggest that this may not be the only item we, and Democratic members of Congress, know nothing of that endanger our judicial protections. Just this past week a Pentagon official attempted to intimidate attorneys who are representing prisoners at Guantanamo (mostly pro bono) by suggesting that the lawyers' other clients might want to look elsewhere for counsel. Their law firms were listed.
May I suggest that those of us who think we should simply wait out the next two years of this administration, might want to think again. Think about what kind of country we'll have when all the "little noticed" secrets are finally uncovered, but only after they have subverted our Constitution.