NEW YORK (AP) -- If elected president in 2008, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton would consider giving up some of the executive powers President Bush and Vice President Cheney have assumed since taking office. In an interview published Tuesday in Guardian America, a Web site run by the London-based Guardian newspaper, Clinton denounced the Bush Administration's push to concentrate more power in the White House as a ''power grab'' not supported by the Constitution.
Asked if she would consider giving up some of those powers if she were president, Clinton replied, ''Oh, absolutely ... I mean, that has to be part of the review that I undertake when I get to the White House, and I intend to do that.''
Since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Bush and Cheney have taken several steps to expand presidential authority and diminish the role of Congress and the federal judiciary. Among other things, they have pushed for warrantless wiretapping of terrorist suspects and the use of ''signing statements'' to justify ignoring or defying laws enacted by Congress.
In the interview, Clinton noted that other presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, had taken on new presidential powers but had gone back to Congress later to ratify their actions.
Bush and Cheney had taken a different course, she said.
''There were a lot of actions which they took that were clearly beyond any power the Congress would have granted, or that in my view was inherent in the Constitution,'' Clinton said. ''There were other actions they've taken which could have obtained Congressional authorization but they deliberately chose not to pursue it as a matter of principle.''
(Let the flame war begin...)