President Obama Acting Like King George III

When the President publicly ordered the leaders of the House and the Senate to appear at the White House the next day, prepared to answer his demands for a debt ceiling resolution, many observers noted the high-handedness of his way of dealing with the coordinate and equal branches of government. He showed no respect for their constitutional independence.

Now, though, matters have taken a turn distinctly for the worse. The President has commanded that they make the floors of the legislative houses available to him at a specific time and date without first clearing it with them. Worse, he did so by way of a public announcement rather than a private discussion. He acted, that is, not as president and commander-in-chief but as a royal authority.

This extraordinary abuse exceeds all prior levels of contempt and disrespect for the coordinate and equal branches of government. To his credit, House Speaker John Boehner responded, politely to be sure, with a firm suggestion that the President would be welcome on a different schedule.

The specific problem here is that the President has no constitutional authority within the houses of Congress. He can not order their performance according to his druthers. Yet, it is clear that Mr. Obama believes he should have such authority, and he is determined to exercise it even if he does not. He acts more like he imagines himself a new George III rather than a Barack II.

This “minor” incident has all the indicia of gravity that would suggest the need for wakefulness to a looming threat of tyranny, such that thoughtful citizens will need to wonder whether they can decently wait the interval of fourteen months for the chance to remove the pretender in an election.

Let’s be clear about the nature of the offense. Mara Leierson, NPR news analyst and Fox News commentator, sought to clear the President with the observation that from time immemorial presidents have always sent letters to the House and Senate requesting joint sessions and that these have always been followed by automatic invitations. That, she holds, has been the protocol. But she is wrong. No president has ever released a letter to the public, indicating such a request, without first having consulted privately with the leadership of the House of Representatives and the Senate to confirm the propriety of the proposal. What Mr. Obama did on August 31 is exactly the opposite. He assumed that the mere expression of his wish were sufficient to command the compliance of the Speaker and the Majority Leader. Hence, he issued it publicly, expecting no opposition to his proposal.

Mr. Obama did not learn the lesson that George Washington learned, when in 1789 he presented himself in person before the Senate seeking “advice and consent” on seven important points in relation to negotiating treaties with Indians. Upon recognizing that the Senate were rather disposed to debate than to respond immediately (thus leaving him in feckless limbo), he effectively turned on his heels, red-faced and resolved never to repeat the folly.

What Washington learned thereby was that the branches of government were indeed independent, none subject to the direction of any of the others. The constitutional orders called for their collaboration through the forms of their offices and especially for courtesy and respect in their interactions. He ever after acted in accord with that truth, to the strengthening and betterment of the new republic.

Mr. Obama is the first president in 222 years to demonstrate ignorance of that constitutional propriety. Or, is something other than constitutional ignorance? Is it possible that the current president simply has decided to perform the Constitution into a different political alignment than that bequeathed to the heirs of the founders?

Increasingly, that seems to be the case.