- Joined
- Oct 4, 2005
- Messages
- 69,534
- Reaction score
- 15,450
- Gender
- Undisclosed
- Political Leaning
- Very Conservative
Let's see the report where he says "monarchical notions of prerogatives," and that he believes that the Executive should have the power of monarchs.
Unfortunately, I can't find the actual report online. You can go to a library and get it though. Here is what was discussed on Bill Moyer's Journal:
BILL MOYERS: Yeah. The minority report of that congressional committee said, quote, the chief executive will on occasion feel duty-bound to assert monarchical notions of prerogative that will permit him to exceed the laws. The leading advocate in Congress of that particular-
BILL MOYERS: --position and sentence was--
CHARLES FRIED: Dick Cheney, yes.
BILL MOYERS: He's saying that the president--is a monarchy.
CHARLES FRIED: And- here is where I would fault that statement. But I would fault it because it's nothing that should be asserted as a legal proposition. It's something that has to be acknowledged as a fact of life. Lincoln did. Roosevelt did. And if you put it into a legal opinion, it becomes a precedent.
FRITZ SCHWARZ: It becomes a loaded pistol.
CHARLES FRIED: Becomes a loaded pistol which lies about for anyone to use. And if you then endorse it as a legal principle, it's very dangerous. But as a reality, it has happened, has always happened. Let me give you a--
BILL MOYERS: Well, as a political, I don't think Cheney-- who knows what he meant. But I don't think he meant it legally. I think he meant it politically that you do not--
CHARLES FRIED: But then he should have shut up about it.
BILL MOYERS: Well, but--
CHARLES FRIED: And just done it.
FRITZ SCHWARZ: And, of course, he resaid it after in 2002 or 2003. He said, if you want to understand my views, go back and look at what I said and what David Addington who works for me helped me say--
BILL MOYERS: He did--
FRITZ SCHWARZ: --in that Iran-Contra report.
CHARLES FRIED: --big mistake. Big mistake.
Bill Moyers Journal . Transcripts | PBS
Charles Fried was the Solicitor General at the time of Iran-Contra. He doesn't deny Bill Moyer's quote.
