Terri Whitehouse October 12th, 2007

David M. Herszenhorn of the New York Times posted an excellent blog about Rep. John Yarmuth’s effort to bridge the partisan divide in Congress and distribute buttons emblazoned with “Article 1″:

The way Representative John Yarmuth of Kentucky sees it, lawmakers on Capitol Hill and Americans everywhere have forgotten who the Founding Fathers really intended to run the country –- not the President who was more of a Constitutional after-thought but the Congress, the people’s elected representatives.
…
“All legislative powers are vested in the Congress and, in fact, the Constitution grants very limited powers to the executive branch,” Mr. Yarmuth said. “We lost sight of that.” The Article 1 buttons, he said, were “a reminder that we have not just power but responsibility under the Constitution. Hopefully, if this catches on, the public will see that we understand our power and our responsibility.”

I applaud Rep. Yarmuth’s effort, and think it’s pretty frightening the extent to which some people have forgotten the roll of the legislative branch.

(h/t: Crooks & Liars)

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