Some questions America needs to be asked

[Toots]

Did the country select a President as defined by the US Constitution or did it select a "Unitary Executive"? Do we live by the Constitution or do we live by "Unitary Executive"? Was Saddam a "Unitary Executive" or Hitler? What exactly is a "Unitary Executive"?

[acmavm]

1. A two word title for what bush** originally said he wanted to be.

A dictator. But he holds the title, Cheney & the neos hold the power.

[Lerkfish]

2. Unitary Executive is, by definition, a dictator unfettered by opposition

from the other branches of govt.

Dictators rarely ask or wait for permission to take over.
and that is exactly what has happened.

[magellan]

3. It's Federalist crap

And if Bush** had been honest and revealed that he embraced such radical views before being selected in 2000, he would have been sent packing before he even became a candidate.

[Igel]

4. "Unitary executive" refers to an interpretation by

which the executive branch is a unitary entity: it is internally governed by the President, as the head of the executive branch.

"Unitary" refers to how it's governed. All portions of the executive branch answer to the source of executive authority, the prez, since s/he's designated as the head of the executive branch. No two branches of the executive branch can be at logger-heads in a principled way, since they answer to the same person, since they compose a single organization.

The claim is that the president has to interpret the laws (which is a no-brainer) in order to enforce them, pending any litigation; the constitution has granted him some powers. In some cases, the powers aren't so much what the Constitution says as to what it's been construed to say, beginning shortly after the thing was ratified. But purely managerial things, and issues that the Constitution places in the executive branch's bailiwick, are off limits, the theory goes.