On the Soapbox

Despite the firestorm of controversy over his excessive use of signing statements to overrule Congress and to undermine the separations of powers, Bush continues to make ample use of them, this time to defy Congress over provisions of the Homeland Security bill signed into law on Wednesday.

The final three paragraphs of the Associated Press article are worth noting, however.

Bush's signing statement Wednesday challenges several other provisions in the Homeland Security spending bill.

Bush, for example, said he'd disregard a requirement that the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency must have at least five years experience and "demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management and homeland security."

His rationale was that it "rules out a large portion of those persons best qualified by experience and knowledge to fill the office."

The portion of the signing statement from which the above was derived:

Section 503(c) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, as amended by section 611 of the Act, provides for the appointment and certain duties of the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Section 503(c)(2) vests in the President authority to appoint the Administrator, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, but purports to limit the qualifications of the pool of persons from whom the President may select the appointee in a manner that rules out a large portion of those persons best qualified by experience and knowledge to fill the office. The executive branch shall construe section 503(c)(2) in a manner consistent with the Appointments Clause of the Constitution.

So Bush is essentially insisting that the new requirement that the FEMA director be experienced and knowledgeable will somehow rule out people who are "best qualified by experience and knowledge."* Bush's predecessor was certainly not a perfect president, but at least Clinton appointed people based on qualifications, even if that meant appointing Republicans to prominent administration positions such as the Secretary of Defense. Has Bush learned absolutely nothing from the case of FEMA director Michael Brown or about the consequences of appointing people to office based simply on their passing his litmus test of loyalty?

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* Of course, this is not the first time that his astounding command of logic has been on display.