Bush's first veto?

President Bush has been notoriously averse to wielding his veto pen, but the $440.2 billion defense bill pending in the Senate may be the first measure to receive that presidential inscription. The bill "provides $7 billion less than President George W. Bush requested early this year and is nearly $1 billion below current levels," pointed out a September 30 Reuters report. The White House insists that those cuts would "either result in deterioration of our force readiness" or trigger supplemental spending requests later in the fiscal year.

The potential deal-breaker for the White House, however, is an amendment approved by the Senate on October 5 banning the use of "cruel, inhuman, or degrading" interrogation techniques against detainees. The Bush administration has repeatedly claimed that the president has the authority to detain, as an "unlawful combatant," any individual for any length of time he deems appropriate; that those acting on behalf of the president can properly subject detainees to methods of interrogation that amount to torture; and that none of these decisions or actions are subject to judicial or legislative review.

Last August, three Republican senators--John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, and Virginia's John Warner--proposed an amendment to the military appropriations bill that would have prohibited certain interrogation techniques and created an oversight commission to investigate claims of detainee abuse. The amendment was tabled under pressure from the White House.

It is entirely possible that George W. Bush's first veto will be cast not to rein in profligate spending, or beat back legislation that is unconstitutional on its face, but rather to defend his administration's quasi-totalitarian view of presidential power.