Senate Seeks To Pardon Bush For Past Crimes - How Absurd!

Why is Congress and the Senate giving George W. Bush absolute power? The concept of the legislative branch of government as envisoned by the framers of the constitution, was to make sure that the executive branch could have oversight over illegal or questionable policies. However, THIS Congress seems hell bent on giving up all of their oversight credentials that would insure a "balance of power". It seems they would rather play the lobbying game of "quid pro quo" for millions in ill gotten cash than to do the job they were elected to do as overseers of the executive branch.

Glenn Greenwald (author of "How Would A Patriot Act") speaks to this issue in his blog, Unclaimed Territory:

A new low -- the Senate seeks to "pardon" the President for past lawbreaking
by Glenn Greenwald

Observing and commenting on the behavior of Arlen Specter is one of the most unpleasant obligations a person can have, but for anyone following the NSA eavesdropping scandal specifically, and the Bush administration's abuses of executive power generally, it is a necessary evil. The principal reason that the Bush administration has been able to impose its radical theories of lawbreaking on the country is because Congress, with an unseemly eagerness, has permitted itself to be humiliated over and over by an administration which does not hide its contempt for the notion that Congress has any role to play in limiting and checking the executive branch. And few people have more vividly illustrated that institutional debasement than Arlen Specter, who, along with Pat Roberts, has done more than anyone else to ensure that Congress completely relinquishes its constitutional powers to the President.

Congressional abdication is so uniquely damaging because the Founders assumed that Congress would naturally and instinctively resist encroachments by the executive, and the resulting institutional tension -- the inevitable struggle for power between the branches -- is what would preserve governmental balance and prevent true abuses of power. But for the last five years, Congress has done the opposite of what the Founders envisioned. They have meekly submitted to the almost total elimination of their role in our Government and have quietly accepted consolidation of their powers in the President. More>>>