Score One For McCain On ConLaw

As I've said here several times before, I'm a one-issue voter on civil liberties issues this election cycle. Well, I've found one civil liberties issue that I believe both McCain and Obama have right, even though they come to seemingly opposite conclusions (how's that for a lawyerly lede?): presidential signing statements.

McCain has said "Never, never, never, never. If I disagree with a law that passed, I'll veto it."

Obama has said "The problem with this administration is that it has attached signing statements to legislation in an effort to change the meaning of the legislation, to avoid enforcing certain provisions of the legislation that the President does not like, and to raise implausible or dubious constitutional objections to the legislation. . . . [But] no one doubts that it is appropriate to use signing statements to protect a president's constitutional prerogatives."

McCain's absolutism is refreshing -- "I'm not George Bush," indeed. Obama's more nuanced, wordy position is what you'd expect from a conlaw prof. Indeed, as long as it is, it's probably just shorthand for Prof. Tribe's formulation. My gut says McCain's view is better -- when something has been abused as badly as these, there's going to be a stink about them that needs some major disinfectant. But either one is a sufficient repudiation of the Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush progressive escalation of "unitary executive" signing statements into a constitutionally deplorable usurpation of power.

As a mildly interesting aside, I only just learned about their respective positions this week from The Rachel Maddow Show, which certainly says something about the low signal/noise ratio of this election contest. She mentioned it just before another unbelievably wearisome segment on "the Bradley Effect." I'm just waiting for Classic Sports to have a segment on "the Bradley Effect," discussing whether it was Dollar Bill, Clyde or Willis Reed who was the primary catalyst that led the Knicks to win two championships in the early 70s.