Over at TPM Cafe Book Club today, American University Professor Chris Edelson and author of Emergency Presidential Power: From the Drafting of the Constitution to the War on Terror destroys David Brooks’ recent argument for a stronger president with reminders of what happened with a strong presidency in history:
Roosevelt and the mass internment of Japanese Americans during World War II (Congress and the Supreme Court acted essentially as rubber stamps), Truman’s unilateral decision to make war in Korea, Johnson’s deceptions in Vietnam, Nixon’s nearly successful attempt to turn the presidency into a criminal enterprise operating above the law and Reagan’s involvement in the Iran-Contra affair.
