Bush still doesn’t understand that he is working in a democracy with other co-equal branches of government. Last week Tony Snow claimed that Bush isn’t subject to the laws passed by Congress as he said “The President has the ability to exercise his own authority if he thinks Congress has voted the wrong way.” Raw Story reports that, in an interview to appear on 60 Minutes, Bush similarly claims he is not obligated to follow the law:
In an interview set to air on this Sunday’s 60 Minutes, President George W. Bush vows to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq “no matter what” the Democratic-controlled Congress tries to do.
“Do you believe as Commander in Chief you have the authority to put the troops in there no matter what the Congress wants to do,” 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley asks Bush in the short clip uploaded to the CBS News web site Friday night.
“I think I’ve got, in this situation, I do, yeah,” Bush said.
“Now I fully understand they will,” Bush continued, “they could try to stop me from doing it, but, uh, I’ve made my decision and we’re going forward.”
Of course we saw coming all along. The first sign was seen even before Bush was sworn in:
CHRIS BLACK, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Frank, President- elect George W. Bush came to Capitol Hill today for the first time since the election intending to listen to congressional leaders, the bipartisan congressional leadership. But he also made it clear to them, in more than two and a half hours of meetings, that he intends to stand by his tax cut proposal and other planks in his campaign agenda.
GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH (R-TX), PRESIDENT-ELECT: I told all four that there were going to be some times where we don’t agree with each other. But that’s OK. If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.
For once George Bush’s acts may turn out to be consistent with his words.
Update: Video at Think Progress
