Another day, another Obama "scandal." Went to check my email and noticed this on Yahoo's home page:
The AP article goes on to explain that:
While traveling in Europe last month, Obama directed his staff in Washington to use an autopen to sign into law an extension of certain Patriot Act powers to fight terrorism. The legislation had been approved by Congress at the last minute, and there was no time to fly it to France for Obama's signature before the anti-terrorism powers expired.
It was believed to be the first time a president has used an autopen to sign legislation, and that didn't sit well with a number of Republicans. Twenty-one GOP House members sent Obama a letter on June 17 asking him to re-sign the legislation with his actual signature because use of the autopen "appears contrary to the Constitution."
I'd be willing to entertain the idea that this is NOT some double-standard, hypocritical anti-Obama conspiracy if not for this follow-up graf:
Obama's team relied on a 29-page legal analysis crafted during the administration of President George W. Bush to argue that the faux signature passed constitutional muster.
"You want to preserve the president's semblance of reaching out and being connected," says Jack Shock, who had permission to wield former President Bill Clinton's autopen as his director of presidential letters and messages. "But the cold hard facts are that when you get 10,000 letters a day he can't possibly handle all that kind of correspondence himself."
(Sigh.) Let the impeachment process begin.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Automatic for the People
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Of course, he would have also drawn criticism if he had not signed the legislation before certain Patriot Act powers expired (despite it being physically impossible to do it in person). But facts and context get in the way of a good media sound bite.
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