Veeps for unfettered power

VICE PRESIDENT Dick Cheney hasn't just wielded unprecedented influence within the executive branch; he has also steered President Bush's administration toward his own philosophy of unfettered presidential power.

With Cheney and his proteges in the lead, the administration toyed with going to war in Iraq without congressional authorization. It has also asserted the right to tap phones without warrants, spy on US territory, conduct harsh interrogations, and hold suspected terrorists without charging them.

The limits of executive power should be a vital subject for the debate tonight between the two presidential nominees - Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.

The Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, has hinted at an expansive view of executive power. At Thursday's debate, Palin said the Constitution offers "much flexibility" to the vice president - beyond the duty of standing in for the president and presiding over the Senate. Her handling of her job as Alaska governor suggests an approach much like Bush's.

While the relationship among the president, Congress, and the judiciary is spelled out in the Constitution, the three branches of government have been subtly competing for influence for more than two centuries. But under Bush and Cheney, the executive branch has tested its powers aggressively, and arguing over the extent of executive power is no longer a parlor game for political scientists.

Will the next president take executive power to such chilling extremes? At tonight's debate, voters should look out for signs that McCain and Obama understand the violence that the current administration has done to the Constitution.