If you knew Cheney

If you have read much about Dick Cheney's career, you know that he carries a lot of baggage from his experience in the Nixon administration. And much of that baggage has to do with executive power.

Cheney believes that the events of the Nixon presidency severely weakened the executive branch of the government, and consequently he has been on a crusade of sorts to restore or even broaden the power of the executive.

Here's an editorial from the New York Times today:

Over and over again, the same pattern emerges: Given a choice between following the rules or carving out some unprecedented executive power, the White House always shrugged off the legal constraints. Even when the only challenge was to get required approval from an ever-cooperative Congress, the president and his staff preferred to go it alone. While no one questions the determination of the White House to fight terrorism, the methods this administration has used to do it have been shaped by another, perverse determination: never to consult, never to ask and always to fight against any constraint on the executive branch.

Perhaps the saddest part of what's going on is that the GOP-controlled Congress seems to be gladly relinquishing power to the Bush administration thus weakening the checks and balances created by the founding fathers.

There is a reason that the powers of the legislative branch are created in Article I of the Constitution and only afterwards are the powers of the executive enumerated in Article II. And this is why it is imperative that the opposition party regain control of the Congress and restore the checks and balances that the Republics have ignored.