Liberals Seek to Reduce Executive Branch Power

As highlighted in two fascinating examples below, those on the left sometimes seem to believe that governmental power should lie anywhere but in the executive branch...at least while there's a Republican in office.

Power Line (linked above) highlights a rather remarkable statement this week by New York Times reporter James Risen, author of the newly released book STATE OF WAR, in which Risen complains:

"The checks and balances that normally keep American foreign policy and national security policy towards the center kind of broke down. And you had more of a radicalization of American foreign policy in which the...career professionals were not really given a chance to kind of forge a consensus within the administration. And so you had the...principles (sic)--Rumsfeld, Cheney and Tenet and Rice and many others--who were meeting constantly, setting policy and really never allowed the people who understand--the experts who understand the region to have much of a say."

I'm frankly shocked that Risen finds it shocking that elected officials would do what they were elected to do. Risen, as Power Line points out, seems to believe that "career professionals" should be setting foreign policy, not elected officials.

Meanwhile, if you read this Washington Post article carefully, notice who's leaking to the press "on condition of anonymity" -- the judges on the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that oversees wiretapping. Is it any surprise that the Administration might have found it prudent to bypass the court?

The judges "want to hear directly from administration officials why President Bush believed he had the authority to order, without the court's permission, wiretapping of some phone calls and e-mails after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks." That sentence alone is indicative of how judges have increasingly attempted to skew the Constitutional balance of power toward the courts and away from the executive branch. This could be an interesting topic at Judge Alito's confirmation hearings.

More and more it seems to me that those on the left are losing all historical perspective or common sense as they focus on their quest to defeat President Bush at all costs -- something that Michelle Malkin calls "BDS," or Bush Derangement Syndrome.

Friday Update: For a related story, see today's Confirm Them piece on Judge Alito and Executive Power.