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President Bush thinks the campaign-finance-reform bill he's going
to sign "does present some legitimate constitutional questions."
But he seems
remarkably incurious about what the answers to those questions might
be — as if it's a minor matter to be worried about by someone
else, once he's gotten the New York Times and John McCain
out of his hair.
As far as we
know, Bush hasn't asked the Justice Department about it or his own
White House Counsel.
This represents
more than a politician trying to dodge a fight he finds politically
inconvenient, but a deeper malady in our political culture: the
idea that the Constitution is something for judges, and judges alone,
to interpret (and shape, mold, and generally mangle).
Ramesh Ponnuru
persuasively analyzed
this tendency in the last NR. It is a trend that, at
bottom, is inimical to self-government.
What made John
McCain's primary campaign so exciting at the beginning — and
there was magic in those New Hampshire meeting rooms — was
its call to service, its defense of self-government as a worthy,
even heroic, enterprise.
And, here,
now that we have reached what in some sense is the fruition of McCain's
primary crusade, we have the highest elected official in the land
simply punting to the courts on important constitutional questions
directly bearing on the ability of political parties and individuals
to participate in our elections.
This is distressing,
but is also galling. The Bush administration is ever vigilant in
protecting its own prerogatives, whether it's the privacy of Cheney's
energy task-force meetings or Tom Ridge's right not testify before
Congress.
The administration
is willing to get roundly beaten up, even by Hill Republicans, in
defense of these positions. But when it comes to the privileges
and prerogatives of ordinary people — well, those are "constitutional
questions" in which the administration has considerably less
interest.
When John McCain
isn't smearing politics, and instead celebrates it as a noble enterprise,
he's on to something. It often has ennobling moments.
But President
Bush affixing his signature to a bill he's thinks may be unconstitutional
won't be one of them.
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