Harry Reid: "We're a government of laws, not men"

Here is something for historians to remember.  President Bush has defied more than 750 federal statutes.  Even though he becomes the first U.S. president since Thomas Jefferson to be in office this long without vetoing one bill, he still wants line item veto power.  This line item veto power would allow him to amend sections of bills to his liking after they were voted on by the House and Senate -- an Executive power that the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional in the late-1990s.

This week Harry Reid took exception with the President's over-extended Executive power:

''We're a government of laws, not men," Senate minority leader HarryReid, Democrat of Nevada, said in a statement. ''It is not for GeorgeW. Bush to disregard the Constitution and decide that he is above thelaw."

And today, Senator Robert Byrd gave a speech against the line item authority that will likely be put for a vote this week:

"He could use this new leverage to squeeze members. He could playelection year politics," Byrd said. "It is a weapon that the presidentcould use to threaten and reward, and with the threat of that Damoclessword hanging over each member's head, he could expect to have his wayon many issues."

Is it just me, or is it strange that any member of the Senate would vote for a measure that reduces the power of the very body he serves?  Not only is the line item veto extremely dangerous from a democratic standpoint, but it goes to show how the President is using wartime as an excuse to micromanage the reduction of money intended for programs that affect tens of millions of Americans.  In my column titled "How I approach political thought," I highlight the importance that balancing -- in this case, balancing the weight of the three branches -- ought to play in politics.