Daily Show: Don't piss off Bush, let him override the Constitution David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Published: Friday February 1, 2008



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Print This Email This With its award-winning writing staff AWOL due to the writers' strike, the Daily Show has had to rely more on Jon Stewart's mugging and exaggerated takes. But the show's ratings are higher than before the strike began, and one blog suggests that the politicians may be funny enough to make up the difference. For example, Stewart reported on Thursday's Daily Show that "9/11 fetishist" Rudy Giuliani has dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Sen. John McCain. "But what effect will Rudy's presence have on the McCain campaign?" Stewart asked. "I, like all Americans, will never forget the defining moment of recent American history, the tragedy of 9/11," McCain stated, with Giuliani at his side. "How did Giuliani get him to do that?" whispered Stewart apprehensively. Stewart then went on to note that Congress recently passed a military spending bill, as is their constitutional duty. "They get to raise and support armies," Stewart stated. "It's in the Constitution, the funding and stuff." However, President Bush added four signing statements overriding various provisions of the bill. "The passed and signed law says you can't spend taxpayer money to build permanent military bases in Iraq," Stewart explained. "And the president, I guess, is saying, 'Uh, yeah, no, I think I can.'" Stewart then asked Senior Correspondent Rob Riggle, "If there is any power explicitly granted to Congress, it would be allocating the budget. ... But the president now is claiming he has the constitutional right to override them. ... He's done this for 1100 laws. ... How can he do this?" "It's crazy," agreed Riggle. "But at this point, really, I'd just let it go. ... This guy hasn't listened to anyone for seven years. He's got a year to go. You're just going to make him madder." Riggle then raised the analogy of a dumb and obnoxious student he knew in grade school, whose behavior his classmates kept trying to correct up until eighth grade, when they stopped bothering because they'd realized that the next year they'd be going to high school while he'd be going to votech. Riggle concluded, "Come inauguration day of '09, George W. Bush is Platte County Tech's problem." "And you're our senior political correspondent?" Stewart asked incredulously.

This video is from Comedy Central's A Daily Show, broadcast January 31, 2008.









