Bipartisan Criticism For Bush Signing Statements

Comparing Bush's use of signing statements to cherry pick which laws he will obey was compared to "crossing his fingers behind his back" by Patrick Leahy. The unprecedented use of "signing statements" as a form of line-item veto has fallen under intense scrutiny and has many in Congress on both sides of the aisle, doubting it's legality. Bush has used this tactic more than 750 times, more than any other President in history.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), the
committee's ranking Democrat, calling the practice "a grave threat to our
constitutional system of checks and balances."