In an election year when the clamor for change is more than just a slogan, playing it safe may be the biggest gamble of all.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

This week a federal judge issued a decision that must have been arrived at in a hermetically sealed vault.  There is no other way to explain its profound ignorance of current events.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

Most outgoing Presidents limit themselves to workaday concerns when they enter the twilight of their terms.  There are good reasons for this, but our current President is once again showing just how singular he is.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

Scott McClellan has ignited a number of different conversations, but the conventional wisdom in the capitol still will not acknowledge the uncomfortable source they all share.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

Sometimes things go wrong because no one could have anticipated how events would unfold.  Sometimes they do because of severely stunted powers of anticipation.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

The House and Senate have been unwilling to exercise one of their most important responsibilities, which suggests they may be looking at a different part of the dictionary than the rest of us.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

This week saw a claim of how reporting is supposed to work along with an example of the same.  It should surprise no one that the latter was more impressive.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

The Republican party is facing another bad election cycle.  Some of the reason is simply the stars aligning against it, but the larger reason is the miserable results of its policies.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

A recently filed lawsuit could initiate a dramatic assertion of Congressional authority.  It could also be just more hot air, and the inscrutable nature of Congress doesn't help figuring out which.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

Last Sunday the New York Times detailed how the administration has used retired military offices as a "Trojan horse" to sell the Iraq war.  We owe it to the soldiers serving there to ask some hard questions in response.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

Last week's torture news received little attention because of the combined effects of decorous politicians, indifferent media and the administration's reflexive defenders.  To change these dynamics we may need to change how we approach the issue.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

The benign-sounding National Applications Office is another example of an objectionable expansion of executive power, and once again it comes in the guise of protecting us from terrorism.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

We rushed to pass a bad law in the wake of 9/11.  The unsurprising consequences are bad enough, but if we can't learn from them it will be even worse.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

Political discouse seems to have degraded recently and the real culprit may have nothing to so with current events.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

The President's political career will soon, and he is eager to determine what people will remember about him and what they won't.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

The President continues to act as though Congress has no role in foreign policy.  It does, and it could easily assert it in a couple of recent developments.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

Primaries were held in my state this week.  Executive power wan't part of the discussion, and neither was anything else of substance.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

The President has made politicization of previously well-regarded institutions a high priority.  While it serves his purposes nicely it isn't such a good deal for the rest of us.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.