Cheney: "have spoken directly about the importance of a strong presidency"

[sabra]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/06/20060619-10.html

<snip>

Q You have talked about reclaiming the powers of the presidency that was lost following Watergate, in fact when President Ford had taken office, and you've talked about the notion of the unitary executive. Should there be any limits, and if so, what?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don't believe I've ever talked about the unitary executive. Others may have suggested that I talked about that.

But I clearly do believe, and have spoken directly about the importance of a strong presidency, and that I think there have been times in the past, oftentimes in response to events such as Watergate or the war in Vietnam, where Congress has begun to encroach upon the powers and responsibilities of the President; that it was important to go back and try to restore that balance.

I participated in the Iran-Contra investigation in the Congress. For those of you who are bored and don't have anything else to do, there are minority views we filed with that report that lay out a view with respect to how we think the balance ought to exist between the executive and the legislative in the conduct of national security policy. So I do believe there is a -- it's very important to have a strong executive.

What are the limits? The limits are the Constitution. And, certainly, we need to and do adhere to those limitations. But I think if you look at things like the War Powers Act, for example, adopted in the aftermath of the Vietnam conflict, that that was an infringement on the President's ability to deploy troops. It's never really been tested. I think it's probably unconstitutional. There are a series of events like that that we believed needed to have the balance righted, if you will, and I think we've done that successfully.

[bigtree]

1. the argument he's making is we should have done nothing

to address Nixon and his henchmen's Watergate abuses, let the Vietnam War escalate and fester; allow for more illegal invasions like in Iraq, and turn our backs on the abuses of power surrounding the Iran-Contra scandal; by association, wiretapping Americans, unlimited power to war, ignore laws in the name of national security, sell our nation to the highest bidder behind closed doors for their own greed and lust for power . . .

[mike_c]

2. interesting that he should specifically mention the WPR...

Since the Iraq War Resolution used it so effectively to secure Congress's complicity in a war of aggression-- the WPR cuts both ways, and provides congress with a framework for abdicating its responsibility to declare war-- or oppose it unequivocally-- at the whim of presidential misadventures.

[bridgit]

3. the office of the presidency of the united state of america is already...

the most powerful chair in the world ESPECIALLY when the president abides of the laws of this nation, that is a hands-down, no brainer fact; we do not need cheney's notion of what a "strong president" is...or is not