Who Says Lame Ducks Don’t Quack?

He's still the decider and he's doing an awful lot of deciding these days.

Billions of people around the world might be celebrating George W. Bush’s imminent departure from office, but his one-way flight back to Crawford is still a few months off–and he’s making the most of his waning time on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Thanks to decades of usurpation of power by the executive branch, the President can move mountains, almost literally, with the stroke of a pen. And Bush and his underlings are hard at work pushing through an Everest-sized pile of last minute rules before the clock strikes and their political carriage turns back into a pumpkin.

What exactly are they doing? How about banning the EPA from regulating rocket fuel in drinking water. Or doling out the rights to mine uranium near the Grand Canyon. Or permitting gun owners to pack heat inside national parks. Or letting coal mines dump more junk into rivers.

If these sound like new laws to you, they should. But wait, you might ask, I thought the Constitution says only Congress can make new laws? Technically, that’s true. But the magic of the “executive order” allows the President to pass down royal dictates that may not be called laws, but that have all the power and effect of laws. Apparently, in Washington, if something walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s not necessarily a duck.

The journalism site Pro Publica is trying to keep track of Bush’s “midnight” maneuvers. They’ve compiled a short list of the ones they’ve found so far, complete with handy explanations, and they intend to update it as they unearth more. We wholeheartedly recommend that you visit the site and get familiar with some of these new non-law laws. They’re probably going to be with us for awhile. Scholars say the new President will be hard pressed to undo most of them.