Charlie Savage to NYT

Swampland - TIME.com » Blog Archive Hillary Clinton Haunted By Her Tax Break Pork «

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:28:49 GMT

Pingback from Swampland - TIME.com » Blog Archive Hillary Clinton Haunted By Her Tax Break Pork «

re: Charlie Savage to NYT

Adam — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:29:40 GMT

Maybe internally, Doug, but it was news to me and a lot of other Globe readers. If it was previously reported, let me know and I'll add a link.

re: Charlie Savage to NYT

Doug Spear — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:18:19 GMT

Adam, this is old news, the Savage deal.

re: Charlie Savage to NYT

Andrew Langmead — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:25:43 GMT

There is at least one way that McCain has stated a disagreement with the Unitary Executive theory that the current administration operates under. In Charlie Savage's own article Candidates on executive power: a full spectrum he surveyed all of the Presidential candidates at the time. McCain said "As President, I won’t have signing statements. I will either sign or veto any legislation that comes across my desk." Neither Clinton nor Obama would count them out. It sort of makes sense in a way. Someone with such a long career in Congress would have some appreciation of its power, over either the executive or judiciary branch.

re: Charlie Savage to NYT

Adam — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:27:54 GMT

Point taken, Richard. The best reason to hope that McCain WON'T follow Bush's lead on this, I think, is that he's been a member of Congress. But you're right--"hope" is the operative word. We shouldn't assume.

re: Charlie Savage to NYT

Richard Pachter — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:44:29 GMT

That may indeed be the case, Adam, but pardon me for not being clearer. My main point is that I wouldn't make any assumptions. Prior to becoming president, the current White House occupant was considered relatively moderate and was said to prefer bipartisan consensus-building... and we know how that worked out.

re: Charlie Savage to NYT

Adam — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:41:26 GMT

Richard, it looks to me like McCain's speech was more a standard-issue rant against "activist judges" than it was an endorsement of unlimited presidential power. Parsing McCain's remarks, Greenwald says he lamented the judiciary "show[ing] little regard for the authority of the president." But the full quote laments the judiciary "show[ing] little regard for the authority of the president, the Congress, and the states." The anti-judge shtick should remind us that McCain's a conservative. But the speech in question doesn't make me think he'd assert the president's right to ignore congressionally established constraints on his/her power.

re: Charlie Savage to NYT

Richard Pachter — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:08:38 GMT

Why assume that McCain isn't a likely proponent of the crackpot "Unitary Executive" theory? The overwhelming evidence, in fact, is that he is. See this piece. for more info.