Well, I'm Jay Nordlinger with National Review here at CPAC, and I have with me a Distinguished American Judge Michael Mukasey, former Attorney General of the United States under George W Bush.

Welcome and thanks for being with us.

Thanks for having me.

It's good to be here.

Ted Cruz said today that Barack Obama is a

lawless president. That's really quite a heavy charge. Lawless. Is that

justified? Lawless in the sense that he recognizes no legal authority that restrains him?

I don't think it's, I think it's entirely justified.

He... it's I think it's entirely justified.

He appeals to law, he invokes law, he, you know, he's, he's, he's lured up down and sideways but the whole point for

him is to is to achieve a particular result and I don't I don't think it's at all a stretch to say

that his laws. Is our system of checks and balances working? It's supposed to of course he's got to be checked. Can he be checked on this amnesty business or is he home free so to speak?

I think he's in the process. He be he may be in the process of being

checked on the on the amnesty business

the fact is that that as he as he himself has pointed out, elections have consequences.

And, you know, one of the consequences is that all the executive power is reposed in his hands.

And then the question becomes, how shameless is he about using it in ways that are not authorized

and ways that in another setting could justify removal from office.

Certainly, I mean there is an argument that wholesale refusal to obey to apply the law, which is what the Amnesty Program is about.

You know, yes, there's discretion in this case or that case to withhold the application

of the law, but if you're talking about just a wholesale

refusal to enforce the law you know there's an argument that that is a that that is the

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