US Presidents on Presidential Power

Tod Landis writes "Responding to George Bush's statement that he will preserve executive power for his "predecessors", I've assembled a collection of quotes from those predecessors. Most saw executive power differently..."

Comments

Ok, even I have to cry "Lefty" on this one

[Marxist Hacker 42]

What, has slashdot become so anti-Bush that we're taking plain text documents written by the submitter as "news" in the politics section now?

While I admit this is a good resource, the predecessor mistake was *YEARS* ago- this is hardly new or any more relevant than yet another "Bush is an idiot" post. Those of us who care about intelligence in a president already know Bush is an idiot- those who don't care just like the fact that they've got a president with the same intelligence and learning disabilities that they have. This issue isn't going to change anybody's vote one way or the other.

Re:Ok, even I have to cry "Lefty" on this one

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Except...for both the Afghani Theater and the Iraqi theater Bush DID go to Congress and got approval. Sure, there's some argument as to approval for what and under what conditions on Iraq, but approval from Congress WAS sought and obtained. So all that we're left with is Bush protecting priviledge for his "predicessors"....

Re:Ok, even I have to cry "Lefty" on this one

[Curunir_wolf]

Actually, to be fair, Roosevelt started the doctrine that troops could be deployed by the president without congress' approval. He did ask congress about sending the fleet around the globe, but was rejected. Well, he decided he could deploy them anyway. When they got half-way around the world and ran out of money, he went back to congress with "Well, how about some money to bring the fleet back?". Of course it was approved.

Truman presided over the first major armed conflict that did not involve a declaration of war, by convening a UN security council meeting and immediately committing troops to the conflict. This after the secretary of state declaring the Korea really did not fall into the US's "sphere of protection" in the east-asian region.

Truman also first got the country involved in Vietnam, after the French got over their heads in the conflict and asked the US for help. By 1954, 80% of the war costs were borne the the US.

Vietnam became a major conflict during Johnson's administration, as he reinstated the draft and dramatically increased the commitment of troops.

WWII was the last US conflict that involved a formal declaration of war by congress. IMHO, it should not be OK for a president to commit troops to ANY conflict outside of our own borders without a declaration of war from congress. Don't expect ANY president to follow this doctrine.

The Eisenhower quote is interesting, as he was the last president that recognized deploying troops without congressional authority was not intended by the constitution. He was the LAST president to recognize this (and probably always will be).

Come on...

[the darn]

I'm no fan of the Dub, but any collection of quotes can easily manipulated to suit your viewpoint via selection bias. It would be better to examine the actions previous presidents took with regard to defending the presidential "turf."

Oh, come on now...

[CXI]

Doesn't CmdrTaco have a personal blog somewhere to bash Bush instead of doing so on what was once a good news site?

Not only are the quotes out of context, but they are used in error. Furthermore, congress hasn't declared war since WWII, so it's hard to pretend that Bush doesn't have any precedent if he did go in without approval. Of course, there was approval so this whole "news story" is a farce. Way to go and pull a Dan Rather. At least he finally had to apologize.

Humph

[elmegil]

Can we mod an entire article as -1 flamebait? Please? And I don't even like the shrub....

Whoa!

[the_skywise]

This article has nothing to do with "executive power".

The President has the power to write "Executive Orders". These were meant to be used as quick action rules to act on certain situations before congress and the Senate could debate and decide on a proper strategy (because committees are slow).

Congress has been trying to restrict those abilities and THAT'S what Bush is defending.

WAR POWERS (which W is NOT talking about in his quote) are a still hotly debated topic. Executive Orders can be used to facilitate combat (as has been done with Iraq) but the President has combat powers above and beyond the Executive Orders so restricting those doesn't necessarily stop the other.

Bush is not the first to have done this. Clinton did it with Bosnia, Bush Sr. did it with Panama, Reagan did it with Grenada, etc;

The whole power structure of wars, waging wars, military action, etc is still a hotly debated topic in congress and this article does no justice in bringing out the real issues.

Both the Senate and House of Reps....

[Nagatzhul]

authorized Bush to go after Iraq. He did not make the choice on his own. The House of Representatives voted 296-133 in favor and the Senate voted 77-23 in favor. How was this a unilateral decision on Bush's part?

More Bush Bashing on /.