THE CONGRESS: The Crack in the Constitution

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One Way. While not all participants in the meetings agreed, the current state of the Congress was often described in dire terms. Oregon's Republican Senator Bob Packwood saw Congress as being in danger of slipping into the role of a mere "vetoing agency," with ability only to object to presidential initiatives. That would give the U.S. a Government described by Packwood as "very close to an Executive monarchy." The University of Pittsburgh's Charles Jones suggested that "Congress may be on a slide down that 100-ft. razor blade, with no way. to pull itself back." Ribicoff, who has served both on Capitol Hill and as a Cabinet member, said that "Pennsylvania Avenue has become a one-way street," with all the power flowing from a White House that "invariably lies to the Congress, massages it and seduces it to get its will."

TIME Congressional Correspondent Neil MacNeil points out Gallup polls indicating that 57% of Americans cannot name their Congressman, and only 19% can cite a single thing he has done.

Congress has slipped so badly, says MacNeil, that it may soon be necessary "to stuff a Congressman and stick him in the Smithsonian among other extinct species, so that future generations will know what a Congressman looked like."

In its earliest days, Congress had less cause to quarrel with the White House; elected indirectly by what was then a truly independent electoral college, the President existed almost solely to carry out the congressional will. He was regarded as a national administrator, and did not even dare veto a bill he personally opposed unless he believed that signing it would violate his oath to uphold the Constitution. The early fights came instead between the Congressmen, elected by popular vote in their home districts, and the Senators, selected by state legislatures.

The House may have been, as De Tocqueville said, "remarkable for its vulgarity and its poverty of talent." But it was dominant, having the sole power to initiate revenue legislation and impeach federal officials, including the President. The Senate's role, as Alexander Hamilton described it, was to "correct the prejudices, check the intemperate passions and regulate the fluctuations" of the more democratic House. Actually, the Senate was generally too cowed by the popular clout of the House—and too conceited—to object. It was largely the House, through its influential Speaker Henry Clay, that led the U.S. into the War of 1812—despite the reluctance of President James Madison. Clay was the kind of autocrat who, upon leaving a party at sunrise and being asked how he could preside over the House that day, replied:

"Come up, and you shall see how I will throw the reins over their necks."

The erosion of House dominance began with the grass-roots movement that elected Andrew Jackson in 1828.

Jackson conceived the argument that he was the only representative of all the people. He also introduced patronage, thereby enhancing the role of the Senate, which alone had the right to approve or reject presidential appointees.