Beyond Partisanship

At NRO, I examine some of the hints of potential resistance to the president's case for executive supremacy:

For all the president’s invocations of the need to transcend rank partisanship in 2008, the Obama administration might have expected that the president’s sweeping executive actions would cause the Beltway-media complex to dissolve into partisan controversy. However, as the president edges closer to announcing his executive actions, there are signs that the White House’s game plan might be facing some difficulties. Recent rumblings from the media and the silence from congressional Democrats suggest that, if the president does indeed take sweeping action, the administration’s preferred media storyline could be scrambled and the president’s case for executive supremacy could face considerable opposition.

The president and his allies are likely to try to cast this issue of executive authority in partisan terms.  If opponents of executive overreach are going to be successful, they will likely need to shift this debate past partisanship to focus instead on deeper principles and more enduring precedents.