President Obama seems determined to leave office ungracefully … spending his lame duck time igniting a steam of transitional stink bombs to welcome the President-elect.
Or, as pundits like to say (when somebody other than Obama is doing it): “taking unprecedented unilateral action”.
Those who are gleefully cheering him on, should keep in mind that what goes around, comes around.
Some day, Trump may be in a lame duck period with a Dem president-elect ready to launch.
When he starts complicating life for the president-to-come, today’s cheer squad will have no legitimacy to whine.
Obama’s recent power plays reminded me of a “must read” opinion piece in the Washington Post archives.
The article was penned by left-leaning GWU law professor Jonathan Turley
Turley has long been warning that Dems may think it is clever and appropriate when Obama circumvents the Congress and courts to implement his partisan policies, but that they should be forewarned that what goes around, come around.
Specifically, he says:
Democrats have supported President Obama’s claims of unchecked authority in a variety of areas.
Obama has been particularly aggressive in his unilateral actions.
From health care to immigration to the environment, he has set out to order changes long refused by Congress.
Thrilled by those changes, supporters have ignored the obvious danger that they could be planting a deeply unfortunate precedent if the next president proves to be a Cruz or Trump rather than a Clinton.
While the policies may not carry over to the next president, the powers will.
The Obama model will be attractive to successors who, although they may have a different agenda, have the same appetite for unilateral decisions.
Here are some specifics that he cites:
The Homa Files 