2416 "I" Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
February 10, 1990
The Honorable John Sununu
Chief of Staff
The White House
Washington, D.C.
Dear Governor Sununu:
As one who has written you on two previous occasions urging that you get the President to try out the putative line item veto that some constitutional scholars consider was not explicitly included in the Constitution only because the drafters took it for granted as a carry-over from the powers of colonial governors, I think it only right that I let you know how pleased I was to read in the February 9 Washington Post that the President has apparently line-itemed the State Department Appropriations Bill.
I think the wait for this bill was worthwhile, not only because foreign affairs is so clearly a Presidential mandate under the Constitution, but because the items included by the Congress, in the Appropriations Bill, especially the attempt to dictate the make up of a treaty-negotiating team, is such an unwarranted invasion of Executive privilege that I don't see how the Court can rule against the President's action. I also approve of the strategy not to make too much of this first exercise of an implicit power not used since the ratification of the Constitution. I think it an excellent idea for him just to announce that he'd ignore the unconstitutional portions of the Bill, rather than to make a big to do about explicitly vetoing one or more paragraphs. This had not occurred to me as a possible strategy and I congratulate you on thinking of it. It seems well adapted to line vetoing parts of future legislation, merely noting in an appended attachment to legislation which the President otherwise agrees with his intention to ignore specific provisions.
I think that, viewed historically, this may prove to be one of the major contributions of the Bush Presidency to the consitutional development of the country.
What a time to be in the White House: Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, Panama, and now South Africa. We may not be the "perfect union" the Founding Fathers intended, but we are still the last best hope of the world and I pray every night that God will continue to pour his blessings on this nations despite our many mistakes and shortcomings, because we always seem to try the better way in time to avoid Heaven's censure. I hope this will be so with the drug crisis. I think it wise that President Bush has carefully avoided publicly vaunting the success of our country's policies of the past forty years, though one can't help taking pride in the unwaivering bi-partisan pursuit of the containment policy adopted almost two generations ago. Those who say the American form of government isn't up to consistently maintaining a foreign policy over time must surely reassess our form of government now. Not even Great Britain did better at the height of her power.
Sincerely,
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