[lbo-talk] "It´s just a goddamned piece of paper!"

[andie nachgeborenen]

Bush on the  Constitution: 'It's just a goddamned
> > > piece of  paper'
> > > By DOUG THOMPSON
> > > Dec 9, 2005,  07:53


Last month, Republican  Congressional leaders filed
into the Oval 
Office to
meet with President George  W. Bush and talk about
renewing the 
controversial
USA Patriot  Act.
Several provisions of the  act, passed in the shell
shocked period
immediately following the 9/11 terrorist  attacks,
caused enough anger
that liberal
groups like the American Civil  Liberties Union had
joined forces with 
prominent
conservatives like Phyllis  Schlafly and Bob Barr to
oppose renewal.
GOP leaders told Bush that  his hardcore push to renew
the more onerous
provisions of the act could further  alienate
conservatives still mad 
at the
President from his botched attempt to  nominate White
House Counsel
Harriet Miers to
the Supreme  Court.
"I don´t give a goddamn,"  Bush retorted. "I´m the
President and the
Commander-in-Chief. Do it my  way."
"Mr. President," one aide  in the meeting said. "There
is a valid case 
that
the provisions in this law  undermine the
Constitution."
"Stop throwing the  Constitution in my face," Bush
screamed back. "It´s
just a goddamned piece of  paper!"
I´ve talked to three people  present for the meeting
that day and they 
all
confirm that the President of the  United  States
called the 
Constitution "a
goddamned  piece of paper."
. . . . 
Attorney General Alberto  Gonzales, while still White
House counsel, 
wrote
that the "Constitution is an  outdated document."



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