“Just before [President] Bush signed [Arizona Republican Senator John] McCain’s Detainee Treatment Act into law, on December 30, 2005, [legal counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney, David] Addington unsheathed the red pen he kept in his pocket and eviscerated the compromise language that had been worked out between Congress and the White House. In its place, he wrote a presidential ‘signing statement’ suggesting that Bush would only enforce the new law ‘in a manner consistent with’ his constitutional role as commander in chief. It was one of hundreds of similar notes he had insinuated into the legislative record, reserving the President’s right to ignore Congress.”
– Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Page 321