“Differentiate Your Party’s Assertion of Executive Privilege From the Previous Administration’s”
Steven L. Taylor
·
Friday, June 22, 2012
·
5 comments
John Stewart pretty much hit the nail on the head last night regarding the partisan response to executive privilege:
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
Follow Steven on
Twitter
interesting that this is only the first time that Obama has used Executive Privilege.
Stewart almost always nails it.
I think he’s the best political observer in the regular media rotation.
Who’s better?
A good question, and one that deserves an answer (likely to include much squirming).
@al-Ameda:
Correct. That said, Clinton invoked it a LOT (14 times), more than double the six times that GWB used it.
The problem with going solely after statistics flattens out the context of each invocation. Many of Clintons invocations had to do with the Lewinsky affair. Now granted that was tied into a witch hunt, but was that more or less abusive of the Privilege than how GWB or Obama used it?
A similar argument comes up on signing statements.
(fyi – I’m getting those numbers from here: http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2012/06_-_June/Factbox__History_of_executive_privilege/ )
@al-Ameda:
I think Stewart’s protege Stephen Colbert has surpassed him.
@Stormy Dragon:
I agree, Colbert is good too.
Part of the reason that Stewart and Colbert do so well is that they do not have the usual suspect pundits appear on the show to parrot the party talking points. Stewart and Colbert just use news clips and video footage to skewer these guys with their own words and actions.
It’s sure a lot more informative that listening to George Stephanopoulis “question” John Boehner and David Axelrod.