by jpitney | Sep 8, 2020 | Congress, Oversight, Presidency, Separation of Powers
Molly E. Reynolds at Lawfare: Often, proposals to increase Congress’s capacity to oversee the executive branch fall victim to partisanship, with members of the president’s party being reluctant to support reforms that limit his power. Importantly, however, several of...
by jpitney | Sep 2, 2020 | Congress, Constitution, Presidency, Separation of Powers
Mort Halperin and Soren Dayton at The Washington Post: Consider one proposal for limiting the president’s national emergency powers: Sen. Mike Lee’s Article One Act. Under this, a presidentially declared national emergency would expire after 30 days — unless Congress...
by jpitney | Aug 6, 2020 | Civil Rights, Civility, Presidency
Daniel Stid: It turns out that Lewis had not come to George W. Bush’s inauguration in 2001 either. But that didn’t keep Bush from going to and offering a heartfelt eulogy at Lewis’s funeral in which the former President noted, “John and I had our...
by jpitney | Jun 13, 2020 | Civil War, Presidency
As he was dying in a house near Saratoga Springs, NY, U.S. Grant wrote the final pages of his memoirs. He recalled Appomattox and the cause of the Civil War: What General Lee’s feelings were I do not know. As he was a man of much dignity, with an impassible...
by jpitney | May 3, 2020 | civic virtue, Civility, Coronavirus, Presidency
A Message from President George W. Bush@TheCalltoUnite pic.twitter.com/FIn9wuOPTF — George W. Bush Presidential Center (@TheBushCenter) May 2, 2020
by jpitney | Apr 27, 2020 | Presidency
Kate Anderson Brower at The New York Times: John F. Kennedy called on all three of his predecessors during the Cuban missile crisis, two Republicans (Herbert Hoover and Dwight D. Eisenhower) and one Democrat (Harry Truman). In 2005, George W. Bush sent his father on a...