Obama White House Needs To Read Federalist 51

A lot of play is being given to the New York Times article today on Obama.

Ann Althouse does a good post on it. See

David Axelrod "would love to live in a world where the president could snap his fingers or even twist arms and make change happen..."

However what I really like though how she brings in Federalist 51 into the discussion of the article

But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. The provision for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate to the danger of attack. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

What wisdom. Heck we all need to be reminded of that.