CLINTON'S USE OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS COVERS JUST ABOUT EVERY KIND OF REGULATION

Among the most disturbing facts of the Clinton presidency is his affinity for, and frequent use of, executive orders to enact policies that Congress won't approve. Recall the Clinton aide who quipped: "Hmmm. Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Cool." A habit more un-democratic, nor one more inimical to American liberty, is hard to imagine.

The Founders established a system of limited government powers distributed among three co-equal branches that will always compete with and check each other. Surely, for 220 years of American history through presidents of both parties, executive orders have always had their place in establishing policies for the executive branch.

Mr. Clinton, though, is a breed apart. This year alone, he has used a 1906 law to add 2 million acres to the federal stash of land. And he bludgeoned Smith & Wesson into using child-proof locks and other safety devices. "In addition," says The Associated Press, "federal agencies are rushing to complete numerous rules by year's end that would ... limit truckers' driving hours, restrict coastal pollution, require nutritional labeling for meat, bar snowmobiles from most national parks and ban new logging roads in national forests." Even if you laud these ends, the means Mr. Clinton has adopted are dangerous to our freedom. Congress must investigate and, where necessary, overturn the most extreme of these orders.