Doing the people’s business, and stepping up to whittle down the stake driven into the heart of Uncle Sam by the woebegone G. Walker administration’s wanton, disdainful, purposeful and unitary creation of the ongoing Constituional crisis.

- New House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers used his first oversight hearing Wednesday to say that he’s launching an investigation into President Bush’s possible abuse of presidential signing statements.

Democrats and some Republican lawmakers have accused Bush of conducting an imperial presidency by using bill signing statements to declare that he’ll interpret legislative provisions his way and will feel free to ignore some terms.

“That conduct threatens to deprive the American people of one of the basic rights of democracy - the right to elect representatives who determine what the law is, subject only to the president’s veto,” Conyers said as he opened a hearing on signing statements. “That does not mean having a president sign those laws, but then say that he is free to carry them out or not, as only he sees fit.”

[snip]

“The potential for misuse in the issuance of presidential signing statements has reached the point where it poses a real threat to our system of checks and balances and the rule of law,” said Karen J. Mathis, president of the American Bar Association. The ABA approved a resolution last August condemning the way Bush uses signing statements and their frequency.

[snip]

Former Rep. Mickey Edwards, R-Okla., urged Congress to fight the White House tooth and nail on the issue.

“Presidential signing statements may not sound like such a big deal, but they are declarations of the right of a president to be above the law, and that is a path that, once taken, will prove ultimately fatal to our democracy,” he said. Article

It’s a start, albeit a tiny one, as the usual vituperative cries of “national security” and direct claims that the government’s custodians aren’t entitled to know what the government is undertaking pretty much are attempts to pull the rug out. Keep at it, Congress. Restoring and rehabilitating the tasks of investigation, oversight and accountability, all of which the previous majority allowed or actively worked to atrophy will not come overnight, but must not be abandoned.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Wednesday turned over to key legislators copies of a secret court’s “highly classified” orders spelling out how the administration has stopped wiretapping suspected terrorists without warrants and is now spying with judicial supervision.

Gonzales disclosed the decision, which averts a confrontation that might have brought congressional subpoenas, during a news briefing at the Justice Department.

The classified documents lay out details of a secret arrangement approved by a judge on an 11-member national security court that puts the spying program under its jurisdiction. The material was delivered to members of the House and Senate intelligence committees late in the day, congressional aides said.

[snip]

Gonzales said that the documents being released detail “highly classified activities” and must remain secret because their public disclosure “may jeopardize the national security of our country.” He said that other documents on the program are “especially sensitive,” and it’s still not clear whether they’ll be given to Congress. Article