Daniel Ellsberg: "The U.S. President Is Not a King" By Bankole Thompson,

Some of you may not know this, but Daniel Ellesberg with Rev. Phillip Berrigan and Dr. Ekbal Ahmed were a very vocal activists of the 60s. ~t

ETROIT, Michigan, Oct 17 (IPS) -- At 76, Daniel Ellsberg is still vocal. The man who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1969, leading to the fall of President Richard Nixon, is speaking out this time on the 2008 presidential election.

IPS correspondent Bankole Thompson caught up with Ellsberg in downtown Detroit, where he keynoted the opening of the 2008 National Lawyers Guild (NLG) convention.

The celebrated whistle-blower has reservations about the candidacies of both Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. But he still believes an Obama presidency would better deal with the Constitutional crisis of the last eight years.

IPS: In your speech to the NLG, you said Nov. 4 will be an election between 'two monarchies.' Explain?

Daniel Ellsberg: The last seven years have expanded the powers of the president well beyond the bounds of the American constitution. Even [McCain's running mate] Sarah Palin said the other day 'well, it's rather flexible.' Well, it is not flexible enough to accommodate their view of the constitution of the president's role, which is that of a king -- exactly what the constitution meant to exclude was a ruler [who is] essentially beyond the laws. That's what the checks and balances were meant to reject.

With the cooperation of Congress, they really have said in the age of terrorism the president is a law unto himself. The fact is neither [Obama nor McCain] will inherit the limitations that are implicit in the constitution. If that's going to change, I do not think it will be by the efforts of the next president. No president has voluntarily cut back on the powers that they inherited when they came into office. It takes Congress to do that.

Again they won't do it without the public pressing them. There is some movement now for impeachment and for investigations that Congress has not responded to. I can't tell you whether it's because the movement is so small, and it is a minority or because Congress is so resistant. Why is Congress so uninterested in defending their own rules, their own powers?