the hypocrisy of bushy's signing statements:

bushy uses executive "signing statements" like no prior president. instead of making a general declaration about the intent of the bill, bushy gives notice of his legal objections to the substance of the bill whilst signing it into effect. in the case of the recent torture legislation, he is literally announcing that there are circumstances in which he will violate the law he is signing. this is absurd.

it is also hypocritical. for all the talk of the fallacy of "legislating from the bench", it is easy to forget that it is equally illegal to "legislate from the white house". the executive does not make the law, the executive executes the law. of course there are gray areas here: federal regulations are regularly created and altered by executive agencies. but those agencies are constrained by federal law. and despite his belief to the contrary (buttressed as it is an irrationally expansive interpretation of his constitutional powers), bushy is likewise bound by federal law. he does not have the constitutional right to violate the law, yet here he is openly announcing that he plans to do so.