This morning’s news flashes from world markets suggest that the U.S. $700 billion rescue had a lot less impact on the current crisis than an over-the-weekend pledge by European nations to back their own banks. I’m for whatever works to settle things down, save some jobs, and even buck up the 401k just a smidge.…

If the bank rescue legislation , approved and signed into law last week, saves the nation from financial Armageddon – and I, for one, have my fingers crossed on that one – some credit will belong to the men who designed the government in 1787. Two parts of the Constitution were central to this congressional…

The Seminole Tribe of Florida has a proud history. Formed from an agglomeration of Indians who fled to northern Florida in the eighteenth century to escape from English-speaking colonists, the tribe fought three wars against the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century and never submitted voluntarily to removal to Western lands.…

As luck would have it, as world financial markets careen from crisis to bailout and back to crisis again, I have been reading Millionaire, The Philanderer, Gambler, and Duelist Who Invented Modern Finance, by Janet Gleeson. Though a bit short of being a gripping read, the story itself is fascinating, and resonates strongly these days.…

Two current members of Congress are under indictment yet serving the public good in the midst of our current financial/governmental meltdown. Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska and Democratic Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana both face corruption charges while they sit in Congress and run for re-election. Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AL)…

As I wrap up the manuscript for my book on the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson — the projected publication date is next May or June — I also think about the impeachment process followed by that exemplar of constitutional regularity, Romania! After my cycling trip through Eastern Europe this summer, I ran into the…

This week promises an historic collision between Congress and the Executive Branch over the scope of executive privilege — the judge-made doctrine that some consultations with the President are so sensitive that no party can compel their public disclosure. The confrontation arises in the congressional investigation of the firing in 2006 of eight U.S. Attorneys…

The choice of Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as the Republican candidate for Vice President has prompted many to dig up an interview with the governor this summer in which she plaintively asks, “What does a VP do?” Funny she should ask. During the Summer of 1787, the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention did not…

Things have been going pretty well at this site, with traffic building steadily through the year. But now, I must confess, there will be an interruption in service. Next Thursday, I am flying to Warsaw, where I will meet my older son and begin a month-long trek through Eastern Europe trying to track down some…

The War Powers Commission — a privately-funded group of highly distinguished types — issued a report this week calling for the repeal of the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which sets out the legal framework for America’s decisions to go to war. Chaired by former Secretaries of State James Baker and Warren Christopher, the Commission…