President Obama's use of executive powers has some Republicans talking about impeachment, and former Vice President Dan Quayle said Democrats would have been doing the same thing if President George W. Bush had acted that way.
"But President Obama has a different standard," Quayle said Sunday on
"The Cats Roundtable" on New York's AM 970 "The Answer."
"His executive reach, I think, is really an overreach," Quayle said. Courts will eventually determine that, he said, but it won't be until after Obama is out of office.
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Democrats have pointed out that Bush signed more executive orders than Obama during the same period in his presidency, but Republicans counter that those orders were not being used to bypass Congressional authority.
Quayle also was critical of Obama's foreign policy, saying that the White House makes statements, but doesn't follow through. He cited the "red line" in Syria that was crossed but not answered, as well as repeated warnings to Russia over its incursion into Ukraine and attempts to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
"You have more problems being a friend of the United States than being an enemy of the United States – or being at least a challenger to the United States," Quayle said. The administration's "words are fairly meaningless right now. They need action."
Host John Catsimatidis noted that Quayle had served four years in the U.S. House of Representatives and eight years in the Senate when George H.W. Bush tapped him as his vice presidential running mate. Quayle was criticized in the media as unqualified and painted as a political lightweight.
Yet Obama had served in the U.S. Senate only three years before running for president and didn't face such scrutiny.
"One fundamental difference," Quayle responded. "I was a conservative and he's a liberal."
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