| | MSNBC: Congress issues 'hard-hitting report with no teeth' about Bush signing statements
 The House Armed Services Committee has issued a report (pdf) blasting the Bush administration's use of signing statements to reverse the intent of Congressional legislation. However, MSNBC's Dan Abrams and his guests on Thursday's Verdict were concerned that in the absence of sustained public outrage, there is nothing to prevent Bush from continuing to defy the will of Congress
Former judge and legal commentator Catherine Crier began by calling the House report "a very big deal" and noted that former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor had made it clear to her in an interview that she had a lot of questions about Bush's signing statements. "I think if it ever came before the Supreme Court, we'd get a very definitive opinion that this is not appropriate," Crier stated.
Abrams then offered the example of one law intended to prevent retaliation against government whistle-blowers who reveal "possible wrongdoing" to Congress. Bush subverted that law with a signing statement saying that the employees in question could not even testify before Congress without permission from the president or his appointees.
Crier commented that this is an example of how, by issuing orders to federal agencies that circumvent the will of Congress, "the president is then directing the agency ... how to act, and unless there comes time that the issue is then confrontable by Congress or the courts, he can go on directing this sort of behavior indefinitely."
"Why not more outrage?" Abrams asked Huffington Post editor Roy Sekoff.
"It's yet another hard-hitting Congressional report with no teeth to it," Sekoff replied. "They tell us something we already know."
"What should they do?" Abrams asked. "This is outrageous. What should Congress do?"
Crier suggested that Congress needs to establish a mechanism for following up on whether federal agencies are carrying out its legislation as directed, because "unless they find a case, specifically, that can go to the courts, you're never going to have a judicial determination."
"George Bush came to town promising to change the culture of Washington," Sekoff concluded. "And, in fact, he has -- for the worse."
This video is from MSNBC's Verdict, broadcast August 21, 2008.
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