Above the Law

When George W. Bush signed the renewed "Patriot" Act, he praised it as ''a piece of legislation that's vital to win the war on terror and to protect the American people." But, as the Boston Globe reports, as soon as the public signing ceremony was over, the White House issued a statement in which the President said he was not required to comply with the law's requirement that the executive branch report to Congress on how the Act is being used.

John F. Kennedy famously quoted from the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (the oldest governing document in the world) that we have a government of laws and not of men. Mr. Bush seems to think otherwise. It's time--past time--to let him know that he's wrong.