Governor Napolitano and Executive Orders

I have previously written (Weekly Report, 3/3/08) about the Executive Order by which Gov. Napolitano decided that Arizona would follow the more stringent California standards for vehicle emissions. Below is an article written by Greg Patterson at www.espressopundit.com in which he details her philosophy of total disregard for the legislature and the process:

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.