Necessary Roughness

AP reports that for some statutes that the Congress has passed and the President has signed into law, the President has also signed an accompanying statement “reserving his right to ignore the law.”

Apparently, enough to challenge more than 750 statutes passed by Congress, far more than any other president, Specter’s committee says. The White House does not dispute that number, but points out that Bush is far from the nation’s first chief executive to issue them.

“Signing statements have long been issued by presidents, dating back to Andrew Jackson all the way through President Clinton,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday.

The President does have the authority to refuse to enforce certain laws, and in my opinion he should if say, a piece of legislation was enacted, new information came up to challenge the premise of that legislation, and the required action is too time-dependent to wait for Congressional debate.

As a matter of principle I would hate to come down on the side of Sen. Arlen Specter on anything. Planning in advance to break a law that one just signed, though, is agitating, even more so when it’s 750 times. Why not veto the laws and make the Congress get them right?

I wonder what the list is.