"Our system is changing and [Congress] is the one branch that must act if we are to reverse those changes. We are seeing the emergence of a different model of government, a model long-ago rejected by the framers. ... A dominant presidency has occurred with very little congressional opposition. Indeed, when President Obama pledged to circumvent Congress, he received rapturous applause from the very body that he was proposing to make practically irrelevant. Now many members are contesting the right of this institution to even be heard in federal court. ... This body is moving from self-loathing to self-destruction in a system that is in crisis. The president's pledge to effectively govern alone is alarming, and what is most alarming is his ability to fulfill that pledge. When a president can govern alone, he can become a government unto himself, which is precisely the danger the framers sought to avoid."
by:
Jonathan Turley
George Washington University law professor
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Jonathan Turley has never been a terribly reflective mind.
 -- anonymous     
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    anonymous, no matter how correct or incorrect you ad hominem, the comment to its core is factually accurate.
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    Did we elect Obama king ? Apparently congress thinks so.
     -- jim k, austin tx     
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    I have never considered something like this (Obama presidency) to be possible in America and the sacrifices in bloodshed of previous generations were for nothing.

    Does the socialist left truly long for the days before the Magna Carta when the Kings word was law that was never binding on him but only on his subjects?

    How far does it have to go before millions march on Washington DC with the torches and pitchforks come out demanding redress of their grievances to put a stop to the lawlessness and incorruption?

    GOD HELP UP! We are a nation that has slipped its moorings and broken its rudder, thrown its charts and compass overboard and thrown itself to the mercy of fickle hysterically ignorant pathetically dumbed down pop-culture currents.

     -- Mike, Pleasant Hill     
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    I fear we have left the time of governing by constitutional power and are now supplanting it with governing by political power. A great deal of that is a result of media influence and a public that has failed to use its ability to reason on its own. Everyone can name their president, not so many their member of Congress. Sound bites are all we focus on. There are probably many other earlier examples, but take Clinton’s impeachment. It was never conducted as a process as constitutionally outlined. The Clintons knew they were guilty and so had to instead try their case in the court of public opinion. That succeeded wildly with the support of the media which ignored the charges and made it into a man who was simply trying to protect his family from his wanderings. And after all, it was “just sex” anyway, right? At least that’s how this case was presented. Because of the media generated public pressure Congress was too afraid to vote the way the Bar association later did. Guilty. A (Democrat) president can count on the media to make his case for him and with that assistance can usurp power form Congress when convenient. When a Republican is in the White House the media and Congress finds its balls. The problem is, as stated in the quote, they have slowly been gelding themselves and even a Democrat controlled Congress may not have the ability in the future to recoup its constitutional powers when desired, even when a Democrat is in the White House.
     -- SCSURFR, La Mirada     
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    Will it be Queen Hillary next? Bill would make a great jester.
     -- cal, Lewisville, tx     
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