At NRO, Frank Buckley (author of The Once and Future King): Two Cheers for Constitution Day! – With the benefit of hindsight, the Framers might prefer the Constitution they didn’t sign. From the introduction:
Two hundred and twenty-seven years ago the Framers devised the wisest constitution then known to man. That was on September 3, 1787. Unfortunately, they then began to tamper with it, and the document they signed two weeks later has given us the maladies that now beset us.
What was the difference between the two constitutions? On September 3 the delegates had arrived at what they thought were two settled principles. The first was that Congress should appoint the president. Over the prior three and a half months, they had voted six times for a congressionally appointed president. At no time did they vote for a popularly elected president. The second principle was that the president might be removed by a simple majority vote in the Senate, after impeachment in the House. The senators, moreover, might do so whenever they thought the president was failing on the job and guilty of “maladministration.”
Some worthwhile pushback in the comments, too.
Posted at 10:30 AM