How can we kill the Bush power grab and know that it is truly dead? On the next Your Call we'll mark the first day of the Obama Administration by taking a hard look at the office Bush left him. The Bush administration conducted a very public power grab for the executive branch: signing statements, suspending habeas corpus, torture and warrantless wire-tapping are just a start. As a Senator, Obama introduced a resolution requiring that "any offensive military action taken by the United States against Iran must be explicitly authorized by Congress." Will he stick by his demand for humbler executive? Does not using these powers render them off-limits to future presidents? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.
Guests: Julian Zelizer in Princeton
Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He is the author and editor of many books and is working on four more: A look at the presidency of Jimmy Carter, a history of National Security Politics since World War II, a history of the Reagan Revolution and an edited volume about former President George W. Bush.
Charlie Savage in Washington DC
Charlie Savage is Washington correspondent for the New York Times. He was the recipient of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for his work uncovering the Bush administration's use of Presidential signing statements. He is the author of Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency & the Subversion of American Democracy.
Gene Healy in Washington DC
Vice President at Libertarian think tank the Cato Institute and author of The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power
Click to Listen: How can we kill the Bush power grab?
