Will our Democratic Candidates who are Lawyers Speak Out against "Anti-Constitutionalism?"

[KoKo]

Josh Marshall at "TPM" makes an interesting point about article by Garry Wills in NYT's this weekend.
Which of our Dem Candidates who are lawyers will speak out about this and make it an issue in their campaign? I'm thinking of Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson that I know are lawyers (not sure about Richardson, though) but what about Chris Dodd, Vilsack, Kucinich? Who will step up to the plate and hit this issue out of the park?

Anyway, it's an interesting read and something we might all want to watch as the Campaigns unfold.

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Critics of President Bush Talk About His Abuse of Power...Josh Marshall

To approach this subject candidly and forthrightly we need to recognize, as Wills does, that some of the militarization of our politics and constitutional disfiguration traces back to the beginnings of the Cold War. But I think Wills understates the qualitative expansion of anti-constitutionalism in the last 6 years, if sometimes only at the level of pretension rather than in execution (signing statements being a good example of this).

But if we're interested in evaluating candidates for high office on the basis of their constitutionalism, what are some of the key points, planks and issues?

In no particular order but to start a conversation ...

1. Abuse of presidential signing statements.

2. Use of the president's 'commander-in-chief' powers to invade the realm of civilian politics.

3. Attacks on habeas corpus, general evasion of oversight by the federal judiciary.

What are the other key points? To me, most of the issue stems from item #2, the over-great pretensions of the president based on the idea that his 'commander-in-chief' powers extend beyond control of the military into the civilian realm as well. On a softer level, we might include the tendency to politicize the military and the federal administration of justice and the increasing reliance on government secrecy. Historically, the presidency has been a great bulwark of progressive change in this country. So key to my mind is to preserve a powerful executive while instituting a renewed respect for the limits to presidential power. The heart of the matter is that the current president and his court poet lawyers see the constitution principally as a problem to be worked around to release the president's untrammelled power. Fundamentally, they're against the US constitution and outside the traditions of American history.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/012158.php

[mongo]

1. K&R

I don't think this issue can be stressed enough.

The other day Gonzoles stated that there is no gaurenteed right to habeous corpus in the constitution for *all* Americans.

[KoKo]

2. I hope more DU'ers will take time to look at this post and the issues

Josh and Garry Wills raise about the "Anti-Constitutionalists." It's really worth the read.