How Dick Cheney Reined in Presidential Power

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/how-dick-cheney-reined-in-presidential-power.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 12:24 PM
Subject: re: How Dick Cheney Reined in Presidential Power
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   If Jack Goldsmith had argued that Dick Cheney showed us why we must be ever vigilant to rein in presidential power, I would be applauding. Instead he argued that Cheney had reined in presidential power. He is wrong. Worse than that, he tries to lull us into letting our vigilance lapse. The Obama administration has not rolled back the power grabs of the Cheney years. It continues to invoke "state secrets" to hide the extent of illegal wiretaps and it refuses to honor the treaties our Congress ratified requiring extradition of torturers.  As long as the Obama administration remains complicit in the excesses of the Cheney years, we would be fools to  congratulate ourselves for "reining in" an Executive amok.

Barry Haskell Levine