L'Etat C'est Moi

Governor Napolitano's first official act was to establish her "Copper Card" by Executive Order.  She's made it clear since then that she views the legislature as an inconvenience instead of a separate branch of government and a check on her authority. 

Now she's decided she doesn't need the legislature at all.  The Governor has decided she can establish a Climate Control initiative by rule.  In order to justify her position, she provides this stunning quote.

Napolitano defended enacting restrictions by rule, saying it's equivalent to actually putting a bill through the Legislature.

Both of them involve stakeholders; both of them involve public comment, public review and all the rest," she said. And Napolitano said both processes are "very transparent."

My gosh, could she really be that arrogant?  It sounds so...French, or perhaps it's British.

The Governor has forgotten that there's one other thing that the legislature provides...elected representation.  Any king can hold stakeholder meetings and public comment sessions then establish processes that are "very transparent." 

Golly, if King George III had held a series of workshops the colonists wouldn't have thrown all that tea in the harbor.  That's why the slogan for the Revolutionary War resonates so powerfully.

"Taxation without stakeholder meetings, public comment and transparency is tyranny." 

There's a really good Separation of Powers course at ASU Law School.  It covers wide variety of topics--including the Unitary Executive Theory.  The course is really well taught and I think she would learn a lot about the structure of Government. 

It's too bad that I can't actually sign this blog entry.  If I could sign it, I would sign it really big so that The Governor could read it without her spectacles.

Comments

[Dave]

Let them eat cake........

[Name:]

If the legislature loses the power of the purse, at least they still have the power of impeachment.

[Travis]

The only thing worse than Queen Napolitano cutting the heads off her legislative opponents is that the legislators keep walking up to the guillotine and placing their heads in the block.

[Jeff]

I'm in an interesting position here. I actually agree with ADEQ's proposed policy (at least what I know of it). I think we have an urgent need to clean up our air here in the valley before it starts killing us (assuming that it hasn't already started).

However, the Governor does NOT have the authority to dictate by executive order. Unless there's a law that says that the governor has the authority, through the ADEQ to regulate vehicle emissions, I don't see how Napolitano has a leg to stand on.

I think it would be interesting for a company to go to court and ask which law it was breaking if it didn't meet the new emissions standards.

While I think the regulations are worthwhile, it needs to be the legislature that approves them, not the governor.

[Italiana]

Now Gregg, with all your harping on bias in the print media, are you going to criticize hold Republicans to the same standards?

[Italiana]

Sorry for the typing errors.

[Paul]

"Napolitano defended enacting restrictions by rule, saying it's equivalent to actually putting a bill through the Legislature."

No, no no - the equivalent to actually putting a bill through the legislature is.. ACTUALLY PUTTING A BILL THROUGH THE LEGISLATURE!

[Mesa Republican George]

Perhaps Janet and Pres. Bush have something in common after all - neither cares one wit about what the legislature (and by extension, the people) want.

[Rick Fowlkes]

BIG GOVERNMENT, gets bigger. More PERSONAL FREEDOM lost.

Rick Fowlkes
ACC candidate

[Ann]

Greg,

John Hancock would be proud.

[mahtso]

"Perhaps Janet and Pres. Bush have something in common after all - neither cares one wit about what the legislature (and by extension, the people) want."

What? The Governor has vetoed over 100 bills and the President less than 10; I haven’t seen any reports from which I would infer that the President believes that promulgating a rule is the equivalent of Congress passing a bill.

[Ron B]

Gov. Napolitano continues to trample on the Constitution--no--tear the Constitution apart whenever she wants. She was a lousy U.S. Attorney, an even worse Arizona Attorney General (see ELL), and now, Rep. Warde Nichols was right, she is the worst governor we've ever had. Impeachment won't work because the sychophant legislative Democrats will prevent it. Elections have consequences. The Republicans need to use the third branch of government (Judiciary) to check her from destroying this state; then gear up for 2010.

[jdleslie1]

I'm wondering what your stance is on the expansion of executive branch power on the federal level in the past 40 or so years. Just askin'.