What this article fails to recognize is the radical theories of unlimited executive power did not simply reside within the office of VP Cheney but are shared by four Federalist Society members of the U.S. Supreme Court, all of whom subscribe to “Unitary Executive” theory—the theory behind the presidential signing statements, torture, rendition and the military tribunals.

A 2006 report of the bi-partisan American Bar Association Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements concluded that the Alito memorandum which created “Unitary Executive” theory provided the underlying premise for what has become a ritualistic practice of tacking on a presidential signing statement to nearly every bill after it is “routed through Vice President Cheney’s office to be searched for perceived threats to the ‘Unitary Executive.’”  In June 2007 the Government Accountability Office released the results of its study of 19 provisions to which these signing statement objections had been attached.  It found that in six instances, the administration failed to implement provisions as required by the measures President Bush had signed into law.

“Unitary Executive” is a theory that is not merely radical but subversive.  Every U.S. President, based upon the mandatory language of Article II of the United States Constitution, takes a solemn oath to see that the laws are faithfully executed.  Then Assistant Attorney General William H. Rehnquist noted in 1969, “It is in our view extremely difficult to formulate a constitutional theory to justify a refusal by the President to comply with a Congressional directive….The execution of any law is, by definition, an executive function, and it seems an anomalous proposition that because the Executive Branch is bound to execute the laws, it is free to decline to execute them.”

“Unitary Executive” does not envision a president who is “above” the law.  Instead, it envisions a president who “is” the law.  It extends to an American president dictatorial powers that exceeded those of the British monarch at the time of the American Revolution.

Of Course.  Nixon REALLY WAS being “gotchad ” by the CIA.

The Cheyney alledged conflict with the CIA was pure Psyops.  See Russ Bakers book of World Historical Imporatance Family of Secrets for the latest in decoding Watergate.  DO WE REALLY THINK IT WAS ABOUT BREAKING INTO A HOTEL AND AN OFFICE?  And how does this compare to what Bush did?

Thomas Franks, author of What Happened to Kansas?, has written the best book by far of what has happened to our country over the past 30 years.  Nixon was a puppet for a much larger group of people who also control Cheney, et al. 
Although Jack Abramhoff is in prison where he belongs, he was a young upstart in this whole debacle.  The truth of it all is that the conservative ideology is to destroy the government as we know it - or knew it/want it to be.  As long as there are greedy power hungry SOBs anywhere near government, we will never be safe from this kind of murdering thugs.

Part 2
Now on to the main course! Dick Cheney, continues to use the power of his office to make war on the American people.  His is an unrepentant and amoral way of thinking that only leads to the imperialistic and agonizing life that we are now living.
The use of the pejorative, Darth Vader is not meant to humanize him, but in a derogatory fashion, make people aware that he like Darth Vader, chose the “dark side,” the underbelly of life and dragged along
kicking and screaming those “detainees” that were “captured and sold to the armed forces,” to secret rendition camps in countries that tortured and killed many many people.  I find that Dick Cheney, among all the people who have taken the oath of office, an oath sworn on the “Bible,” to uphold protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, So help me G-d.”  This shows the contempt with which the neo-conservatives hold the “book,” and the concept of G-d.
I am amazed that anyone of them, is still alive, due to the contempt that they hold the “book” and the founding documents that made this country what it is,
the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Should an accounting ever take place, a true and fair
look at the misdeeds and malfeasance of the administration of George Walker(King George II) Bush,
the shrub and Dick(Darth Vader)Cheney, the American people will call for their heads on spikes, because of the ideological and contemptible way that the offices of President and Vice-President were used to enrich and enliven those who inhabited those offices for the last eight years.
We are now living in the age of Unreason and Corporatocracy!  No more is the Constitution and the Bill of Rights the documents by which those elected to office govern.  This new and damnable breed of person, can only be called an automaton, they do the will of those who have put them in office, the corporate and political interests that fund and make their lives much easier. For the House and Senate, have become lifelong jobs, no longer are these positions what they were meant to be, short stays in the halls of power representing the people of their respective districts and states.
We have examples of this kind of abomination, in Sen. Strom Thurmond, (R) South Carolina, who when faced with choices regarding the welfare of the people of the US chose to enrich himself and his family through immoral acts of the use of power by which we see that these “careers,” in the Senate and House are for incumbents almost if not, lifelong appointments to the halls of power and prestige.
We are a nation whose system of governance is broken and shattered.  We can no longer claim the title of “Grand Experiment,”  for this nation, of, by and for the people, has perished from this earth, and what has replaced it is an abortion of a system of governance that enriches those at the top of our nation and the other

Re: Diamond,  You speak as someone who was alive and present during the time of the Watergate Hotel break-in, and the ensuing trials and tribulations of the United States and its people.
I am amazed that anyone can with clarity recall the attitude and demeanor of that slimy, smarmy administration. Our rights were trampled on and destroyed as “Tricky Dick,” and his cohorts, among them
although minor ones Donald Rumsfeld and Dick(Darth Vader)Cheney.
These two men learned at the feet of a master of UN-Constitutionality and illegality.  Never mind the fact that Richard Nixon destroyed the confidence of the people in government, he also trampled the Constitution like it was a worthless piece of vellum.
Everything that Richard Nixon, had the ring of immorality and illegality. There was no doubt in my mind, young though I was, that Richard Milhouse Nixon
was an unrepentant, abusive and amoral person, who, when elected to the office of President of the United
States, used the office to its full potential for personal enrichment and the gain of his cronies.
Does anyone out there still remember the name, Bebe Rebozo?  I would be surprised that anyone did, but yet, this proves my theorem that those with the most power hand out favours like candy.
*****************************************************

Why is anyone surprised? Cheney and Rumsfeld were both part of Nixon’s administration and it was one of the deep traumas of their lives that the vicious, drunken, drug addicted liar and warmonger who told Americans he would get out of Vietnam to win the 1968 election (once Bobby Kennedy was removed by the usual suspects) and then not only stayed in Vietnam but went into Cambodia, was finally dislodged from office when his offences became too much for even the mainstream media to bear. Everyone talks about Nixon’s use of the CIA to break into a psychiatrist’s office in an attempt to steal Daniel Ellsberg’s file on his treament for depression in the hope of ‘ruining’ him and stripping away his credibility, but very few people ever mention the fact that Nixon also wanted to firebomb the Brookings Institution and had a hit list of journalists he intended to go after when he lied his way back into office. Cheney is Nixon re-jigged but he has gone even further down the road to criminality than Nixon could ever have dreamed of doing. And he did it deliberately to prove that the President and the Vice President are above the law. If he’s allowed to get away with what he’s done America will never heal, anymore than it healed in all the years after Nixon was pardoned by that spineless prat Gerald Ford. I often think Nixon thought people exaggerated the importance of the Watergate break in because he was always considering in the back of his mind all the things he had planned to do and never did, which were even worse than what he actually did do.

I think the idea of Nixon’s and Cheney’s about a nearly all-powerful commander-in-chief (the president) derives from their view as to what U.S. imperialism requires.  In order to pursue imperialism and unpopular wars, the Nixon and Cheney view is that the president has to deal ruthlessly with resistance at home and abroad.

>>>Among the most urgent tasks of the new president—as he and his vice president seem to realize—will be repairing the damage done to law and justice by Nixon’s unrepentant heirs.<<<

The part that I have quoted, just makes me so very sad.  Is this what the Obama Presidency will be defined by, or will it be the hope that so many of us have put into a man who we hope can put legitimacy back in government?

the president is only commander in chief when he or the armed forces are “called into actual service” - AFTER congress has declared war - which it hasn’t done since the wwii.

No politician has the best interest of the people at heart. Bush/Cheney will go unpunished because the rest of our politicians are just like them. Our system is broken, and we need to fix it.

No doubt Cheney et al learned everything they needed to know as to how to defeat a democracy under Nixons Reign.
Nixons Statement about Exec Power was Treasonous, So then is Cheney’s.
Presidents are elected as the top Public Servant, who’s duty is protect & defend the Constitution.
Such claims of limitless power is a trait of Kings and Dictators.
Our Democratic Free market was a declaration Against Kings/Dictators and socio economic Caste Systems.
For the last 40 yrs Republicans have been injecting this Political Poison into our nations veins….expansive exec power, trickle down. Illegal & unjustified Invasions. This ‘King George’ has succeed where the Ol’ King George of Merry Ol England Failed. I consider it the Epitome of Treason.
Democracies are fundementally ‘majority rules’, thus when 2/3 of a demcoracy says we want out of Iraq and our #2 responds “So” that is an indictable offense. ‘So’ is Not an option for a Public Servant in a Demcoracy.That is a luxury of Kings and dictators. Cheney may have not been pronouncing his Nobility, but he certianly was announcing his alliegence does not lie with the People of this Country.