A Great Question For Every Expansion of Executive Power
Glenn Greenwald has shown an admirable willingness to call out "his guy" to frequently criticize Obama's claim to be able to order Americans killed at his say-so, "without a whiff of due process, transparency or oversight". In a recent article, he is flabbergasted that Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schulz, who is also head of the DNC, does not seem to have heard of the policy.
I am less surprised than he at the ignorance and mendacity of politicians. But I did like the question Wasserman Schulz was asked: did she trust Romney (ie her political bête noire) with such power. This is a question that everyone should always ask at proposed expansions of government, and particularly Executive, power. Choose the politician you least trust and/or disagree with the most. Are you comfortable giving this power to that person?
So many of the Left (Greenwald being one of the few exceptions) have ignored this story, I think because they trust Obama. Fine, but are you really going to trust the next guy in power? Because now that you have established that this power is A-OK with a Democrat-Progressive child of the sixties, it is highly unlikely the next Republican in office is going to eschew it. Wouldn't folks have been a bit more careful about giving this a pass had George Bush claimed the power. (There is a sort of domestic policy parallel in this, in Republicans rolling over for Medicare part D when Bush was in office when they never would have done so for Clinton).
