Posted by
Always To The Right on Sunday, November 23, 2008 1:55:13 PM
Do the editors of the New York Times’ opinion pages ever exercise editorial control over their content? I missed Gail Collins’ ignorant and obtuse entry yesterday
while traveling, but it’s worth highlighting for its sheer stupidity.
She wants George Bush to resign now so that Barack Obama can start
running the country before the inauguration:
Thanksgiving is next week, and President Bush could make it a really special holiday by resigning.
Seriously. We have an economy that’s crashing and a vacuum at the
top. Bush — who is currently on a trip to Peru to meet with Asian
leaders who no longer care what he thinks — hasn’t got the clout, or
possibly even the energy, to do anything useful. His most recent
contribution to resolving the fiscal crisis was lecturing
representatives of the world’s most important economies on the glories
of free-market capitalism.
Putting Barack Obama in charge immediately isn’t impossible. Dick
Cheney, obviously, would have to quit as well as Bush. In fact, just to
be on the safe side, the vice president ought to turn in his
resignation first. (We’re desperate, but not crazy.) Then House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi would become president until Jan. 20. Obviously, she’d
defer to her party’s incoming chief executive, and Barack Obama could
begin governing.
As a bonus, the Pelosi presidency would put a woman in the White
House this year after all. On the downside, a few right-wing talk-show
hosts might succumb to apoplexy. That would, of course, be terrible,
but I’m afraid we might have to take the risk in the name of a greater
good.
The problem we have is not a vacuum at the top, but an overactive
executive throwing money away like there’s no tomorrow — and which has
actually intimated that to excuse their actions. They’ve spent more
money in a few short weeks than any time in American history. At the
same time, Bush has negotiated a status-of-forces agreement with Iraq
and worked with the G20 to coordinate other economic policies. He’s
not taking two months off, although Congress might take most of
December as a vacation.
Beyond her ignorance of the President’s schedule, Collins shows a
remarkable ignorance of the Constitution and of American government.
Let’s focus first on the practical implications of her suggestion. The
sudden resignation of the duly elected executive would bring
government to a standstill. Obama hasn’t had enough time to transition
between the Bush administration to his team, and Pelosi hasn’t even
thought about it. What happens in the meantime? Congress hasn’t even
received the nominations of the political appointees from Obama. The
new White House staff hasn’t even been chosen.
And Pelosi will suddenly be able to run the executive branch? Uh,
sure. Collins bases this on the fact that she has two X chromosomes
and nothing else. In fact, while celebrating the idea of making a
woman temporary President, she then says that Pelosi will simply do
what another man will order her to do. That little bit of irony
somehow escapes Collins, along with common sense and procedural issues.
More importantly, no one voted for Pelosi to be president. The succession act Collins references exists to ensure continuity in case of disaster,
not on the whim of a constipated New York Times columnist whose need
for instant gratification apparently outweighs the rest of her cerebral
processes.
We have representative government with legal processes in place to
protect against instability and abuse. Bush has the responsibility to
fulfill the rest of his term and to assist Obama in transitioning
smoothly between the two administrations in order to ensure the
stability of the US government. Our constitutional form of government
is strong enough to allow for this kind of transition, which it has for
220 years.
Obama will be President on January 20, 2009, and not before. If
Gail Collins can’t wait for that date, then perhaps the New York Times
should send her on an extended leave of absence so that she doesn’t
further embarrass herself or her paper in the next two months.