The Legal Fiction of the "Unitary Presidency"

Not to trot out the fact that I was an honor student, but I got "A's" in every history, social studies, civics, world civ, and government class I ever took, high school and college...And not to brag, but I was the very first person in the history of my high school (established in the late 1880's) to get a perfect score on the constitution test that was required for graduation. I went back and re-read the constitution recently, and it sure looks to me like we are supposed to have three branches of government, not a "unitary presidency."

Madison et al put in checks and balances to prevent any one branch of government from becoming dominant. A little over 200 years later, that most precious and vital of American documents is in peril.

But not content to rely solely on my amateur analysis, I called my son (grad student in history) and asked him about the theory of the Unitary Presidency. "No such thing Mom. I never even heard the term until about two weeks ago."

Being a good Jew, I have a brother-in-law who is an attorney. (A Jewish Attorney son-in-law is automatically issued to every Jewish mother who raises three or more daughters.) I asked him. After he finished guffawing, he launched into a tirade. "It's one more legal fiction created by the puppetmasters for the chimp in chief to sell with a smirk. Along with 'enemy combatant' and 'extraordinary rendition.' And they are getting away with it! Can you believe this shit?" And a little over an hour later, when the cordless was going dead and we were both getting hoarse, we finished agreeing with one another about what a miserable waste of skin our president is.

If this program was okay, and on solid legal ground, why were only a few select, rabid-right members of the legislative branch notified of it's existence? Most damning of all...Why was it concealed from the Justice Department? The Justice Department and the Attorney General are the entities who would ordinarily be charged with overseeing such a program. And here's the real kicker...John Ashcroft, certainly no friend of the ACLU and civil liberties in general, was squeamish about it. Hint: If Ashcroft thinks something is an infringement on civil liberties, chances are a thousand to one in favor of it being an egregious affront to our basic American freedoms.

If I had three wishes, they would be for the resurrection of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry. Men who knew something about freedom, and the price thereof. Men who were willing to risk their necks ending up in nooses to establish this great nation of free peoples with liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness equally available to all. (Eventually and in theory, but something to aspire to none the less.)

You just know that these knuckleheads in charge right now would have been Tories, and sold out the founding fathers for thirty pieces of silver.