‘Panderer In Chief’ Breaks Another Promise
BY: NCViking
First it was a pledge to accept public financing during his campaign, then NAFTA flip-flopping, on to his five-day public web review of bills before signing, and ban on lobbyists serving in his administration, and earmarks, and Armenian genocide, and on and on and on. Now our Panderer In Chief has broken yet another promise, this one on signing-statement rules and transparency.
From WaTi:
President Obama failed to consult Congress, as promised, before carving out exceptions to the omnibus spending bill he signed into law — breaking his own signing-statement rules two days after issuing them — and raised questions among lawmakers and committees who say the president’s objections are unclear at best and a power grab at worst.
Signing statements date back to the 1800s, but became a heated issue when critics accused former President George W. Bush of using them to carve out parts of laws he would ignore on policy grounds, rather than simply lay out separation-of-powers conflicts between the executive and legislature.
On March 9, Mr. Obama issued new rules designed to cut down on statements. He promised to work with Congress in advance to work out objections and decrease the need for a signing statement, said he would be specific in his objections when he does issue a statement, and would “act with caution and restraint.”
Two days later, on March 11, Mr. Obama issued his first statement, listing objections to at least 10 provisions and citing five constitutional grounds.
The objections ranged from very specific to fairly broad, including interfering with the chief executive’s right to negotiate on foreign affairs; misconstruing the military chain of command by forcing him to get sign-off from military commanders for certain U.N. peacekeeping missions; and making some executive decisions subject to pre-approval by congressional committees or advisory boards with congressional members. Mr. Obama said that violated separation of powers.
Tim Rieser, majority clerk for the Senate Appropriations Committee’s state and foreign operations subcommittee, said the vague language of Mr. Obama’s signing statement left subcommittee members with questions about the administration’s intentions.
“We will be asking them for clarification,” he said. “They appear to believe that certain provisions exceeded Congress’ constitutional authority. Congress did not see it that way, so we need to discuss it.”
Several members of Congress and their staffers also said they received no warning about the objections.
The White House defended the statements, saying the omnibus spending bill was “an unusual case in many respects.”
This seems to be a running theme with Obama:’exceptions‘. I know, all politicians break promises, but his talent for pandering along with the pedestal he and his worshipers have put him on have made his seem much more egregious. This coupled with a sense that ‘Candidate Obama‘ has yet to become ‘President Obama’ by acting like he is still on the campaign trail has started to give many pause.
Most of the public has been stinkn’ drunk on Hopeandchange. So drunk on his messianic, cultist image and the the excitement over the first African American President to realize ‘who’ it is was they elected to office. To Obama’s defense, he generally didn’t cloud his ultimate identity, and he didn’t need to. The public was already under-the-table so they didn’t see or care who they were electing. Now with an economic hang over, reality has set in and even some of the most avid Obamologues are beginning to get buyers remorse, whether justified or not.
Bottom line: Let’s not kid ourselves. America elected a very smart yet inexperienced pandering celebrity to run the country, complete with his Hollywood-type liberal agenda. He is making no bones about pushing this as his ‘Change’ and governing mostly from the left. He is not a centrist, like Bubba Clinton. We can either go along with it and see what happens, or fight his agenda with our pens, keyboards, voices and votes. Either way, we as Americans elected him, for better or for worse.
- Why Are We Still Listening to Ben Bernanke? - August 31st, 2010
- Favre Returns for One More Year - August 18th, 2010
- Mosque at Ground Zero and the First Amendment - August 18th, 2010
- NFL Predictions 2010 - August 10th, 2010
- Basil Marceaux ... Magnificent! - July 23rd, 2010
Seven were water skiing the upper Niagara river.One weakly stated “we are getting a little close to the falls,and was called names by the other six and shut up.Some skied left, some skied right, one stayed behind the boat where there was no wake. It was a beautiful day and all were having fun. As the boat turned back the motor sputtered and quit. “Told you so”, came from the back. The other six agreed and said “shut up”.”Paddle to the right” exclaimed three.”The left bank is closer” said three others.One was busy shutting up. And downstream they they went three paddling right, three paddling left. All paddled as though their very life depended on it. One said “we need to paddle the same way as we are not making any progress”. Again six say in unison “shut up”.1/2 mile from the falls, one can shut up no longer “we must work together, to either side now”. “To the right”, shouted the right, “we will never make the left bank.The other three said “we have worked too hard, you are wrong, and we will never paddle right”.And on they went, three paddling right, three paddling left, and one silently and solemnly paddling downstream.
Can we not agree that either bank is better? At this point arguing about which side we left the car on is is not pointless. One side needs to give up on who is right, at least until we reach shore.At that point we can decide at leisure who was right, and who was wrong.
Some may say analogies are useless. Some may argue my analogy is incorrect. I’m sure some are wondering “Where are his facts, Why no links to other articles? My answer, “look where we are going”. Have a nice day.
Proud, I like analogies, although none are perfect… including my own. I will work within yours, because I liked it.
The key is that we need a leader and right now, we have Obama. He wants to lead us to the left bank, and we will definately be led in that direction, if not all the way there. To lead us there, he is reminding the country that the waterfall is imminent and we need to radically alter the boat and its contents, shedding many of the items that we brought on our boat trip. Many of these items are important items which we have carried for a long time, but three on the left do not care about those things and the three on the right think they are all important. So we paddle. Those on the the right side would disagree with Obama that we are in current danger from the falls and feel that the current may gentlely lead us to safety (to the right bank) if we do not fight it so hard. Those on the left feel that the current is too strong and want to add new features to the boat, like a new light and a cool new flag… that have nothing to do with getting to the side, but would in fact cause the boat not to float easily to the side.
I’m getting carried away here.
Yes windy. We may need to jettison some items that were dear to us. I personally have found that I can live on two meager meals a day. Breakfast has been rice with beans. I skip lunch, and for dinner we eat beans with rice. I am laughing as I type, not so much from the hilarity, but from the reality.(Damn, I burned my beans)I whole heartedly agree, now is not the time to decorate, or plant a victory garden(leading by example?)Any guesses as to the cost of a tomato grown on the white house lawn? I do believe President Obama is a very smart man, but like the bonuses this act seemed like a slap in the face.Now that the garden is in, and we must proceed, should we use undocumented workers to reduce the cost of these tomatoes? I certainly hope the President has better things to do.
Trackbacks
Sobering Up After the Obama Drunkfest | The Great Illuminator
Obama’s Town Hall Questioners Were Campaign Supporters | The Great Illuminator
Leave your response!
Our Growing Debt
Countdown Timer
in 26 months, 0 weeks, 3 days, 0 hours, 42 minutes, 59 seconds
Latest Illuminations
Subscribe to Posts
Categories
Authors
Archives
Center Links
Conservative Links
Great Forums
Liberal Links
The Great Illuminator
Most Commented
Tags