To shield FEMA from cronyism, Congress established new job qualifications for the agency's director in last week's homeland security bill. The law says the president must nominate a candidate who has "a demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management" and "not less than five years of executive leadership."

Bush signed the homeland-security bill on Wednesday morning. Then, hours later, he issued a signing statement saying he could ignore the new restrictions. Bush maintains that under his interpretation of the Constitution, the FEMA provision interfered with his power to make personnel decisions.

The law, Bush wrote, "purports to limit the qualifications of the pool of persons from whom the president may select the appointee in a manner that rules out a large portion of those persons best qualified by experience and knowledge to fill the office."

The president has no use for legislation that would hinder cronyism. The best qualified people in Bush's world might not have relevant knowledge or experience, but they sure know how to raise funds for Republicans.

The president's assertion that Congress can't set qualifications for positions that it creates is bizarre.

Georgetown Law School professor Martin Lederman said Congress clearly has the power to set standards for positions such as the FEMA director, so long as the requirements leave a large enough pool of qualified candidates that the White House has "ample room for choice."

Are you surprised to learn that the signing statement wasn't made public during the fanfare surrounding the bill signing? Of course you aren't.

The press office posted the signing-statement document on its website around 8 p.m. Wednesday, after most reporters had gone home.

The president's brazen use of a signing statement to resist cronyism was quickly challenged by, of all things, a Republican. What a brave new world this is.

Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine and chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, who has been one of the harshest critics of FEMA's performance during Katrina, yesterday rejected Bush's suggestion that he can bypass the new FEMA laws.

TalkLeft's commentary regarding signing statements is collected here. Essential reading: Neil Kinkopf's paper, "Signing Statements and the President's Authority to Refuse to Enforce the Law," available at the American Constitution Society.