Christian Science Monitor
by Daniel Schorr

12/23/05

President Bush is taking on an issue of presidential powers over which presidents have stumbled before. ... Historians have said that President Lincoln freed the slaves, blockaded Southern ports, and instituted a draft all without constitutional authority. President Reagan invoked 'inherent powers' to justify the illegal sale of missiles to Iran and the illegal financing of the civil war in Nicaragua. Short of impeachment, the Congress has no way of stopping a willful president except to deny him funds. That, of course, is unlikely, especially with a Republican-controlled Congress...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1223/p09s01-cods.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp