A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had established a government of laws and not men. They recognized that the structure of government they had enshrined in our Constitution - our system of checks and balances - was designed with a central purpose of ensuring that it would govern through the rule of law. As John Adams said: "The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men."
An executive who arrogates to himself the power to ignore the legitimate legislative directives of the Congress or to act free of the check of the judiciary becomes the central threat that the Founders sought to nullify in the Constitution - an all-powerful executive too reminiscent of the King from whom they had broken free. In the words of James Madison, "the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."
(Fmr. Vice President Al Gore, Address To American Constitution Society And The Liberty Coalition, Washington D.C., 1/16/06)
7 comments:
Let's hope he keep making speeches.
Let's hope he stays tough.
Let's hope.
rQm
It's about time! Thanks Al...
Something needs to be done about King Dubya in a real hurry!
I hope too RQM.
Sadly he preaches to the choir.
The lemmings continue to follow the "leader."
Oy.
STB
I agree with the Butler. Those of us who didn't need to hear it already agree and those who did were only bored. *sigh* Still, it pleases me to see Al speaking up.
I certainly pray that the Dems finally start speaking out as Mr. Gore did.
That King needs to go away, SOON!!
Al Gore needs to keep saying this, again and again and again. When he gets upset he has a passion that I really love.
We are so quiet, we really are like sheep being led to the slaughter. The American people need to wake up take to the streets to protest this arrogant and law breaking Administration.
Hi there! Came over from visiting Blogzie to say hello. I love your blog - very striking looking. Marvelous design!
I really liked Gore's speech. It's the best I'd ever heard out of him - and quite well delivered too. I wish he'd made speeches of this caliber 6 years ago - a higher popular vote total would have made the entire Florida fiasco less possible. Ah well - at least he's kicking some ass now. I hope he changes his mind and decides to run for president again
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