How can you protect…

…what you don't even understand? Via Atrios...

Me: But isn’t it the Supreme Court that’s supposed to decide whether laws are unconstitutional or not?

Tony: No, as a matter of fact the president has an obligation to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. That is an obligation that presidents have enacted through signing statements going back to Jefferson. So, while the Supreme Court can be an arbiter of the Constitution, the fact is the President is the one, the only person who, by the Constitution, is given the responsibility to preserve, protect, and defend that document, so it is perfectly consistent with presidential authority under the Constitution itself.

This is the oath taken by every member of Congress, and "and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States," not to mention every buck private in the Army, as required by Article VI of the Constitution.

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

OK, it's not "preserve, protect and defend." Clearly, though, the Courts and the Congress are adequately sworn to protect the integrity of the Constitution. There's nothing special about the Presidency in that regard.

In fact, the notion that there's nothing particularly special about the Presidency at all is central to the notion of America. It's just one office in a web of checks balances. Every schoolboy knows that. Bush and his mouthpiece apparently don't.

This is the most un-American administration in American history.