Power shift to president may stick

AMERICAN presidents have sometimes ignored constitutional mandates when, in their view, compliance might harm the nation. Jefferson believed he violated the Constitution by acting alone and in secret while arranging the Louisiana Purchase from France.

Likewise, Lincoln acted without the necessary congressional approval when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln also acted unconstitutionally at the dawn of the Civil War, when he suspended habeas corpus and allowed citizens to be held without trial, in an effort to keep Confederate sympathizers from blocking Union troops as they moved south to defend Washington.

And during World War II, President Roosevelt – and the US Supreme Court – endorsed the mass internment of Japanese Americans in an action now widely recognized as unconstitutional.

President Bush's actions, in contrast, are relatively minor, according to some experts who say his proactive approach to preventing terrorism is motivated more by fear than by the desire to accumulate power. "I think there is genuine worry that things may come unraveled on their watch if there is another [terrorist] incident," says Tom Henriksen, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace in Stanford, Calif.

Others see a more opportunistic, power-hungry White House.

"The Imperial Presidency" is a phrase made famous by historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. in his book about US presidential power from the beginning of the Republic through Richard Nixon. The collapse of the Nixon presidency and the Vietnam War devastated the executive branch, leading to such limits as the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which restricts the president's power to commit troops abroad without congressional approval. It also led to strict congressional oversight and other restrictions on the FBI and CIA.

After Nixon, presidents could only dream of the power that FDR enjoyed, when first the Great Depression and then World War II spawned far-reaching new executive-branch functions. Roosevelt also had both houses of Congress on his side for all of his 12-year tenure.

Power is "a goal for Bush and [Vice President] Cheney," says Larry Sabato, a professor of government at the University of Virginia. "The belief among some scholars, and certainly occupants of the executive branch, is that since Vietnam and Watergate, executive power has been trimmed too much and that executive prerogatives have been eliminated."

The first President Bush believed in this strongly, and that's where Mr. Cheney got it, says Mr. Sabato. "So Bush Jr. is taking up where Bush Sr. left off."

The implications extend far beyond US borders, analysts say.

"The United States has more power than any nation or empire in the history of the world. More than the Ottoman Empire or the Roman Empire," Mr. Lichtman says. "Nobody doubts that we can win a war anywhere. The issue is, can military power do what needs to be done – not, can we exercise military power."

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