Signing off on Signing Statements

As Sen. Obama is being nominated as the Democratic Party's candidate for the Presidency, my thoughts turn to what he said about 'signing statements.'

George W. Bush has issued 155 signing statements, as of January 28, 2008. These statements let him cherry pick the parts (of the acts passed by Congress) that he would not enforce, rather than exercise a veto. In principle, these signing statements are a violation of the separation of responsibilities and power across the three branches.

Obama's stance on signing statements is that "No one doubts that it is appropriate to use signing statements to protect a president's constitutional prerogatives." This should be very disturbing to anyone who is systems oriented and process oriented.

On the other hand, hats off to Sen. McCain for saying that if elected president, he would issue no signing statements reserving the right to disregard parts of laws passed by Congress.