Introduction: The Unitary Executive and the News Media

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Like it or not, President George W. Bush is a history maker. He stands out, among other reasons, as the first president in 175 years to not veto any legislation during a 4-year term. Of course, this may have been an unintended consequence of history, as President Bush mostly enjoyed a Republican majority in both chambers of Congress, so a unified government means unified goals. However, Republicans in Congress were not always faithful to President Bush. A case in point is Senator John McCain’s anti-torture amendment to a defense appropriations bill in the wake of the scandal at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. At first, the Bush administration announced its displeasure of the amendment and threatened to invoke its veto prerogative. Months later, in a seeming about face, President Bush embraced the defense bill with the amendment that banned torture and signed it into law. The most significant part of the story was the dual act of signing the bill into law while eviscerating the substantive elements of it. This was accomplished through a signing statement, one of the many unilateral powers of the modern American presidency.KeywordsPolitical SystemForeign PolicyNews MediumExecutive OrderBush AdministrationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.