Today the Senate is expected to vote on changes to the FISA law. President Bush wants immunity for the telecoms because that will take the matter away from those pesky courts–which keep declaring his initiatives to be contrary to law. The Dems claim that we get sensible and desirable FISA rules in return for the telecom immunity deal. Just assume for a moment that that is true, what assurance do we have that such rules will not be bypassed with one of those fine print signing statements?


Reporter and author Charlie Savage:

Early on in the administration, Cheney arranged it so that all legislation that was going to be headed toward the president’s desk to be signed would be routed through the vice president’s office, allowing David Addington to take part in the bill‐​vetting process. Normally signing statements would be crafted by the Office of Legal Counsel, the White House Counsel’s office, the Office of Management and Budget. The vice president’s office was added to that mix, and this became another vehicle for the expression of these very strong views of executive power, this very aggressive conception of what it is that is beyond Congress’ ability to regulate when it comes to the executive branch.

Recall that after Congress tried to write new laws concerning interrogation practices run amok, Bush seemed to relent, but then quietly inserted a signing statement that essentially said he would interpret this new law in a way that would be consistent with his power as command‐​in‐​chief of the armed forces, which seemed to reduce the new law to nothing but words on paper. Will Bush fool everyone again?


For more on signing statements, go here.