A Third Term of Bush?

I’d like to take a second about a matter that should concern all Americans: NSPD-51. This directive has received surprisingly little discussion online, and (not surprisingly) in the mainstream media. This directive would give the current president the power to extend his term indefinitely in the case of a “national disaster”. Here is an excerpt from the directive:

“Enduring Constitutional Government,” or “ECG,” means a cooperative effort among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal Government, coordinated by the President, as a matter of comity with respect to the legislative and judicial branches and with proper respect for the constitutional separation of powers among the branches, to preserve the constitutional framework under which the Nation is governed and the capability of all three branches of government to execute constitutional responsibilities and provide for orderly succession, appropriate transition of leadership, and interoperability and support of the National Essential Functions during a catastrophic emergency.

Slate.com has a great article about NSPD-51 that does an excellent job summarizing the problem with the vague wording of NSPD-51:

What does comity mean in this context? Informally, it means good-natured, good-faith camaraderie. In its jurisprudential sense, the American Heritage Dictionary defines it as “the principle by which the courts of one jurisdiction may accede or give effect to the laws or decisions of another.”

In other words, in the weasel-speak of NSPD-51, it implies that one or more branches of the government will have to cede power to another. And since everything is to be “coordinated by the president,” I’m guessing that the members of the Supreme Court left alive and some congressional leaders left alive (How chosen? What party balance?) will in effect have to sit around a big conference table and do a lot of “ceding” to the executive.

And given the current state of relations between Congress and the executive, such comity will not necessarily translate into camaraderie.

If it comes down to whether to pull the nuclear trigger, who will get to vote, and how large a majority will be required to launch?

Comity—that innocent-sounding word—could well turn out to be the excuse for junking those pesky checks and balances the Founding Fathers seemed so obsessed with. For an indeterminate period of time.

If this post has piqued your interest please head over and check out the full post from Slate.com and check out the more than 36,000 sites on Google that are as concerned about this as I am.

Here’s the full Slate.com article, a great place to start.