Congressional leaders let loose a bipartisan roar in May after the first-ever FBI raid at a legislative member’s office. But – with exceptions – they’ve been passive as President Bush breaks all records for ignoring Congressional mandates.

Bush has vetoed just one bill in his nearly six years in office. But he has, in effect, line-item vetoed more than 800 items in more than 100 bills he’s signed.

The problem is, line-item vetoes are unconstitutional – and Bush’s use of so-called “signing statements” to impose them undercuts Congress’s constitutional powers.

When a president vetoes a bill, Congress has the power to override his action with two-thirds votes in the House and Senate.

But when a president signs a bill into law and then decides that he will ignore elements of it, he nullifies that override power.

Bush is on track to have the second-lowest veto record of any two-term president – Thomas Jefferson vetoed no bills at all, and George Washington, just two – but Bush already has far surpassed all the presidents before him in canceling laws with which he disagrees.

In July, the president of the American Bar Association decried the practice as “a threat to the Constitution and the rule of law.”