The Imperial Presidency

Last Sunday the New York Times had an excellent article, After the Imperial Presidency. The article examines the role of the U.S. Senate in recent years and ponders the future under an Obama Presidency. An early quote from Senator Patrick Leahy sets the stage.

We’re supposed to be the conscience of the nation

If only that were the real case maybe our nation would not be in the situation we find today.

From the same article Virginia Senator John Warner said in reference to the three coequal branches of government:

The tripod has got to stand on these three legs, and if one leg gets weak, the tripod begins to not supply the support this country needs. I see this institution getting weak.

Agreed. The House and the Senate of recent years have in large measure abandoned their responsibility as a coequal branch.

Too many Senators find themselves

torn between his obligations to the Senate and his duties to the Republican [or Democratic] Party

Politicization in too many instances blocks any chance of the very actions necessary for the public benefit.

In recent days under the Democratic Party controlled Congress

A number of administration officials have invoked executive privilege rather than answer questions at hearings; others have simply refused to show up altogether, often ignoring subpoenas in the process. While hardly pleased, the Democrats have yet to issue a single contempt-of-Congress citation.

The Democrats once again abandoned their responsibility. There can be no justice and no equality of governing branches so long as on branch is allowed to act as they choose without restraint of any sort.

Presumably, as more detainee lawsuits make their way through the federal courts, we will learn additional details about the mistreatment of enemy combatants, particularly because the new administration's lawyers won't have the same incentive to suppress such information.

Maybe so but there has been so little demonstration of such integrity I cannot help but worry.

And even among the rumormongers of the day silence on real investigation of Bu$hco.

But there has been no talk of the newly elected Congress undertaking a sweeping investigation of the Bush administration's activities along the lines of the Church Committee.

Bruce Fein, a Justice Department lawyer in the Reagan administration, said of the Senate in relation to big decisions

There’s a psychology of vassalage to the president. They don’t want to be out there on a limb.

And we see the constant pressure for reelection play a part.

By political necessity, senators spend as much time as possible back in their home states building up their treasuries for their next race.

Where are the Church's of our time? Are they all gone? Is money and fundraising for reelection the only chore our Senators have time to arrange these days?

We are in deep trouble in our nation. This sort of behavior must end yesterday or sooner if we are to have any realistic chance for a new direction. It is the sort of evidence the article discusses that makes me very cynical and distraught about our possible future. It is that same cynicism that forces me to continue political activity in the hope of finding others with spine and integrity along the way.

History has shown that where you stand on executive authority is largely a matter of where you sit.

Let us hope President Obama finds his seat a more just and beneficial one than what President Bush occupies.

Peace.