the poor and less-educated. The good news is, they just made a bunch of money by you paying 70% more on your car insurance. (HT: Fark)
VIDEO: Condi’s workout with weights.
Moving toward a more “muscular and agile” diplomacy. Video here.
Founders Feared The Imperial Presidency
[Sen. Daschle will be here to answer your questions and respond to your comments at 10:30AM EST -- Ed.]
In one of the best books on the Constitutional balance of powers in the conduct of foreign affairs, Pat Holt — Chief of Staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee throughout the 1960s and 1970s — characterized the competing and overlapping grants of power in the Constitution “an invitation to struggle.”
Consider this:
– Section 2 of Article II of the Constitution makes the President the “Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States” but Section 8 Article I makes clear that only the Congress can “declare War.”
– Section 2 of Article II permits the President to “make Treaties” and appoint “Ambassadors and other Public Ministers and Counsels” but only with agreement of 2/3 of the Senate.
In their wisdom, the Founders did not give outright power on these critical matters of war and peace to any one branch of government. Instead, they left it up to the elected political leaders to debate and struggle over these questions in the hopes that such debate would be the surest way to end up with sound policy.
By refusing to even cooperate with the Senate Judiciary Committee efforts to oversee the legality of the NSA program, the Administration is ignoring the Founders’ sound advice. By refusing to allow the Senate Intelligence Committee to look into the NSA program, Chairman Roberts is doing the same.
The Constitution invites us to struggle about these questions, not ignore them. Chairman Specter, Senator Rockefeller and others have accepted the invitation. I hope others in the Senate will follow their lead.
ThinkFast: March 1, 2006
ThinkFast is a new feature of ThinkProgress. (It’s still a work in progress – let us know what you think.)
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales “clarifies” his February 6 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. A letter to the committee from Gonzales suggests “the Bush administration’s warrantless domestic surveillance operations may extend beyond the outlines that the president acknowledged…”
Bush says Bin Laden helped him get reelected. Shortly before the election Bin Laden released a tape critical of the president. Reporter Bill Sammon quotes Bush in his new book: ”I thought it was going to help. I thought it would help remind people that if bin Laden doesn’t want Bush to be the president, something must be right with Bush.”
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said of Bush’s 2007 Homeland Security budget proposal: “It’s a hollow budget and I can’t understand it.”
National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said yesterday that a civil war in Iraq could lead to a broader conflict in the Middle East. Meanwhile, the AP reports that a “civil war looms” in Iraq. (The WSJ, however, thinks “We’re winning in Iraq.”)
President Bush made his first visit to Afghanistan yesterday with a surprise, four-hour stay that “comes at a time of increasing violence in the country.” The Defense Intelligence Agency director told Congress “the Taliban-dominated insurgency remains a capable and resilient threat” to the central government. Read more
