Bush administration pattern of excess

"Over and over again, the same pattern emerges: Given a choice between following the rules or carving out some unprecedented executive power, the White House always shrugged off the legal constraints. Even when the only challenge was to get required approval from an ever-cooperative Congress, the president and his staff preferred to go it alone. While no one questions the determination of the White House to fight terrorism, the methods this administration has used to do it have been shaped by another, perverse determination: never to consult, never to ask and always to fight against any constraint on the executive branch.

"One result has been a frayed democratic fabric in a country founded on a constitutional system of checks and balances. Another has been a less effective war on terror."&mdash;New York Times Editorial, July 16, 2006. (emphasis added)

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * Bush administration cronyism and incompetence
 * Bush administration fetish for government secrecy
 * Bush administration: individual rights versus national security
 * Bush regime
 * enemy combatant
 * extraordinary rendition
 * Feingold resolution for the censure of George W. Bush
 * George W. Bush's domestic spying
 * George W. Bush's phone records spying
 * Georgeland
 * The Bush Theocracy
 * The case for impeachment of President George W. Bush
 * The Cheney-Rumsfeld Cabal Deception
 * Unitary Executive Theory

2001

 * Sarah Foster, "Executive power grab on tap at White House? Attorneys: Bush's post-attack directives could lead to liberty-curbing restrictions," WorldNetDaily, September 27, 2001.
 * John W. Dean, "Hiding Past and Present Presidencies: The Problems With Bush's Executive Order Burying Presidential Records," FindLaw's Writ, November 9, 2001.

2004

 * Editorial: "Wretched Excess. Conservative concern," National Review Online, February 5, 2004.

2005

 * Jennifer Van Bergen, "Scholar says Bush has used obscure doctrine to extend power 95 times," The Raw Story, September 23, 2005.
 * Glenn Greenwald "Bush's unchecked Executive power v. the Founding principles of the U.S.," Unclaimed Territory, December 17, 2006.
 * Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei, "Clash Is Latest Chapter in Bush Effort to Widen Executive Power," Washington Post, December 21, 2005.
 * Daniel Schorr, "Bush's use of executive power," Christian Science Monitor, December 23, 2005.
 * William C. Kashatus, "Wartime Powers: Lincoln's Restraint, Bush's Excess," History News Service, December 29, 2005.
 * Fred Kaplan, "The Right Kind of Paranoia. How the NSA could fix its data-mining program," Slate, May 12, 2006: "But here's the crucial issue: The executive branch of the government cannot be trusted with sole access to such massive and intrusive information. This has nothing to do with who the president is; it has everything to do with the nature of power. To dispute this fact is to dispute the need for checks and balances; it's to dismiss the constitutional premise of the U.S. government."

2006

 * Jennifer Van Bergen, "The Unitary Executive: Is The Doctrine Behind the Bush Presidency Consistent with a Democratic State?" FindLaw's Writ, January 9, 2006.
 * Robert Parry, "Alito & the Ken Lay Factor," Consortiumnews.com, January 12, 2006.
 * Paul Craig Roberts, "Bush Has Crossed the Rubicon," LewRockwell.com, January 16, 2006.
 * "In Martin Luther King Day address, Gore compares wiretapping of Americans to surveillance of King," The Raw Story, January 16, 2006.
 * "Gore Blasts Bush for 'Dangerous Breach'," Drudge Report, January 16, 2006.
 * Byron York, "The Little-Noticed Order That Gave Dick Cheney New Power. Have you ever heard of Executive Order 13292?" National Review Online, February 16, 2006.
 * "President Bush's Theory of Executive Power and the Constitution," Jurist, March 2, 2006.
 * Charlie Savage, "Bush challenges hundreds of laws. President cites powers of his office," Boston Globe, April 30, 2006.
 * Gene Healy and Timothy Lynch, "Power Surge: The Constitutional Record of George W. Bush," Cato Institute, May 1, 2006.
 * Editorial: "A Pattern of Excess," New York Times, May 14, 2006.
 * Kevin Phillips, "God's own party," Washington Post (Seattle Times), May 14, 2006.
 * "Biden says NSA shows 'pattern of excess'," UPI, May 14, 2006. re Senator Joseph Biden (D-Delaware).
 * Shane Harris and Murray Waas, "Justice Department Probe Foiled" National Journal, May 25, 2006