Allowing the executive to define the scope and limits of its own powers

this surprises me not in the least... it's perfectly in keeping with the road we've been marched down for the past 6 1/2 years, only instead of it being conducted under cover of darkness, in no media coverage signing statements and executive orders, unfettered executive power is now being baldly unveiled as the overarching imperative of our near-totalitarian state...

Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.

[...]

Mark J. Rozell, a professor of public policy at George Mason University who has written a book on executive-privilege issues, called the administration's stance "astonishing."

"That's a breathtakingly broad view of the president's role in this system of separation of powers," Rozell said. "What this statement is saying is the president's claim of executive privilege trumps all."

[...]

[T]he administration's stance "is almost Nixonian in its scope and breadth of interpreting its power," [Rozell continued]. "Congress has no recourse at all, in the president's view. . . . It's allowing the executive to define the scope and limits of its own powers."

congress had better act fast... time's running out...

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