Thursday, November 22, 2001
Bush embraces big government after all
Bush embraces big government after all
(Filed: 22/11/2001)
President likens powers to Roosevelt action, reports Stephen Robinson
THE IMPERIAL presidency is back in Washington as the man who ran for the White House against the powers of centralised government assumes wider controls in his conduct of the campaign against terrorism.
With virtually no complaint from members of Congress, President Bush has taken new emergency powers while widening the scope of "big government", which previously he campaigned against.
In justifying stringent new powers to detain aliens and put them on trial in secret, Mr Bush has compared his position to that of Franklin D Roosevelt in meeting the Nazi and Japanese threats 60 years ago.
The actions against "alien suspects" are finding general favour as the national mood is now firmly behind the government and its workers - notably the police and firemen - who served bravely in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
The Gallup polling organisation reports a sharp increase in popular support for the workings of the federal government. Some three quarters of Americans now approve of the job being done by Congress, the highest level since the question was first asked in 1974.
Earlier this week, Mr Bush signed into law an aviation security bill that took airport safety out of the hands of the airlines and at a stroke turned 28,000 luggage screeners into government employees, all of whom must now be US citizens.
However, these actions are relatively uncontroversial compared to the national security measures he has taken.
Mr Bush has signed an executive order giving him powers to determine that foreign terrorism suspects be tried and executed in secret by military tribunals, even if a third of the officers attending doubt the defendant's guilt.
Arab-Americans in the Detroit area are growing incensed by the use of overt "racial profiling" in a sweep to interview some 5,000 people of Arab descent.
"I need to have that extraordinary option at my fingertips," Mr Bush said, defending his new powers.
"I would remind those who don't understand the decision I made that Franklin Roosevelt made the same decision in World War Two. Those were extraordinary times as well."
In other areas, Mr Bush is taking decisions himself which previously would have been made by consensus with Congress or with other arms of the government.
On security grounds, Mr Bush has curtailed the briefings he formerly gave to senior members of Congress about the progress of the military campaign in Afghanistan. And the White House is no longer giving details of how many suspects have been arrested in connection with the terrorist attacks.
"It is not uncommon in times of war for a nation's eyes to focus on the executive branch and its ability to conduct the war with strength and speed," said Ari Fleischer, White House spokesman.
It is certainly true that US administrations tend to assume greater powers in times of crisis. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War, while Japanese-Americans were interned after Pearl Harbor.
The term imperial presidency was used by Arthur Schlesinger to describe the powers assumed by Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon during the Vietnam war when the party structure fractured and the White House became more isolated and authoritarian.
Conservative eyebrows were raised this week when Mr Bush abruptly signed an executive order renaming the headquarters of the Justice Department in honour of Robert F Kennedy, a hero to American liberals. This was seen as a sop to the Democratic leadership in Congress in an effort to ensure easy passage of any further legislation.
However, Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, Robert Kennedy's daughter, used the occasion of the renaming ceremony to condemn Mr Bush's recent anti-terrorism initiatives, making the point that her father would have strongly disapproved of such illiberal measures.
One irony of the new security regime is that the FBI and CIA, the two agencies which so badly let down Americans by failing to foresee the September 11 atrocities, have been rewarded with a vast expansion of their authority.
With a personal approval rating of 87 per cent and public support for the campaign against terrorism still solid, Mr Bush seems to have calculated that he can afford to ignore the protests in the press and from civil liberties groups.
But his actions still represent a remarkable turnaround for a man who campaigned for the presidency by highlighting the dangers of a too-powerful executive, and who repeatedly cast the federal government as a problem rather than a solution.
(Filed: 22/11/2001)
President likens powers to Roosevelt action, reports Stephen Robinson
THE IMPERIAL presidency is back in Washington as the man who ran for the White House against the powers of centralised government assumes wider controls in his conduct of the campaign against terrorism.
With virtually no complaint from members of Congress, President Bush has taken new emergency powers while widening the scope of "big government", which previously he campaigned against.
In justifying stringent new powers to detain aliens and put them on trial in secret, Mr Bush has compared his position to that of Franklin D Roosevelt in meeting the Nazi and Japanese threats 60 years ago.
The actions against "alien suspects" are finding general favour as the national mood is now firmly behind the government and its workers - notably the police and firemen - who served bravely in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
The Gallup polling organisation reports a sharp increase in popular support for the workings of the federal government. Some three quarters of Americans now approve of the job being done by Congress, the highest level since the question was first asked in 1974.
Earlier this week, Mr Bush signed into law an aviation security bill that took airport safety out of the hands of the airlines and at a stroke turned 28,000 luggage screeners into government employees, all of whom must now be US citizens.
However, these actions are relatively uncontroversial compared to the national security measures he has taken.
Mr Bush has signed an executive order giving him powers to determine that foreign terrorism suspects be tried and executed in secret by military tribunals, even if a third of the officers attending doubt the defendant's guilt.
Arab-Americans in the Detroit area are growing incensed by the use of overt "racial profiling" in a sweep to interview some 5,000 people of Arab descent.
"I need to have that extraordinary option at my fingertips," Mr Bush said, defending his new powers.
"I would remind those who don't understand the decision I made that Franklin Roosevelt made the same decision in World War Two. Those were extraordinary times as well."
In other areas, Mr Bush is taking decisions himself which previously would have been made by consensus with Congress or with other arms of the government.
On security grounds, Mr Bush has curtailed the briefings he formerly gave to senior members of Congress about the progress of the military campaign in Afghanistan. And the White House is no longer giving details of how many suspects have been arrested in connection with the terrorist attacks.
"It is not uncommon in times of war for a nation's eyes to focus on the executive branch and its ability to conduct the war with strength and speed," said Ari Fleischer, White House spokesman.
It is certainly true that US administrations tend to assume greater powers in times of crisis. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War, while Japanese-Americans were interned after Pearl Harbor.
The term imperial presidency was used by Arthur Schlesinger to describe the powers assumed by Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon during the Vietnam war when the party structure fractured and the White House became more isolated and authoritarian.
Conservative eyebrows were raised this week when Mr Bush abruptly signed an executive order renaming the headquarters of the Justice Department in honour of Robert F Kennedy, a hero to American liberals. This was seen as a sop to the Democratic leadership in Congress in an effort to ensure easy passage of any further legislation.
However, Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, Robert Kennedy's daughter, used the occasion of the renaming ceremony to condemn Mr Bush's recent anti-terrorism initiatives, making the point that her father would have strongly disapproved of such illiberal measures.
One irony of the new security regime is that the FBI and CIA, the two agencies which so badly let down Americans by failing to foresee the September 11 atrocities, have been rewarded with a vast expansion of their authority.
With a personal approval rating of 87 per cent and public support for the campaign against terrorism still solid, Mr Bush seems to have calculated that he can afford to ignore the protests in the press and from civil liberties groups.
But his actions still represent a remarkable turnaround for a man who campaigned for the presidency by highlighting the dangers of a too-powerful executive, and who repeatedly cast the federal government as a problem rather than a solution.
All articles in this archive are used under "fair use" as they are important to the national discussion of whether or not the people of this country are being deceived by their government. These articles are used as evidence in that discussion.
