The Imperial Presidency

To our shame many of us were quiet when the employees of AIG were asked to give back the monies negotiated in legitimate contracts; moreover, when their wives and children were being threatened. What was their crime? They had the gall to have signed contracts which allowed them to be paid generous salaries and perks. No contractual conditional language was involved in the contracts for these AIG employees to give back the fruits of the contract, but many politicians and members of the public wanted the employees to give them back. We repeated that same moral indolence when we sat quietly by while bond holders of GM were relegated to second class citizens, while the union members were given primacy.

In the same vein, we have had a pay Czar who told private companies via presidential fiat, what they could and could not pay their CEOs. This happened under a president who claimed to respect the rule of law - it is even more grating because President Obama was a Constitutional Law professor. There are many in President Obama's administration and many in his party, if they had their way, would have Cheney incarcerated, not for any malfeasance vis-à-vis his stewardship of Halliburton, but for sanctioning water boarding of stone cold killers. These same champions of the rule of law had nothing to say while President Obama cast aside codified contractual law principles, which have been part of our Constitution and way of life for over 230 years.

Perhaps it is the Christian in me, but President Obama should place himself in others shoes. Our president recently signed a $5,000,000 contract to write a book; I supposed he will put pen to paper sometime in 2012 or 2016 to write his memoirs. Let us supposed that his popularity ratings are lower than they are now, should the publisher take back some of the millions, for the lack of popularity, if the contract is lacking this “conditional” language? Our President’s wife, Michele, once had a position at hospital in Chicago hospital that paid her $300,000, should the hospital board be able to come back and arbitrarily ask for the money back - again, without the contractual language support? I have searched to find a similar time in history to compare what it is we are now facing, but I only could come up with one similar epoch.

In ancient Rome, when the Republic was threatened, the Patricians (wealthy class) and the Plebeians (common folks) would agree to allow a dictator to take charge and combat the outside threat and then return the Republic to the Senate when the danger was gone - I supposed the recession is our outside threat threatening Rome (USA). Does anyone believe that the pay Czar, who was a lawyer, would have wanted someone to determine his generous partner pay at the prestigious white shoe law firm whence he came? Have you noticed that President Obama, via his pay Czar, has not told Lady Gaga, LeBron James, Derik Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Tiger Woods, Tom Cruise, Will Smith, or Bruce Springsteen how much they should earn for their respective vocations? It is a wonder that President Obama’s pay Czar did not determine what the Green Bay Packers should pay its quarterback; after all, it is the only football team that is owned by the public….