redblueamerica.com

Anybody looking for a five-minute overview of presidential power in the United States -- and how the Bush-Cheney administration has expanded it in alarming ways -- should check out this interview with the Boston Globe's Charlie Savage:

As Secretary of Defense to the first President Bush, (Cheney) urged George H.W. Bush to launch the Gulf War without going to Congress for permission, like Truman had done, though his advice was rejected. But the second President Bush adopted Cheney’s view that they ought to use their time in office to strengthen presidential power as an end to itself – to leave the office stronger than it had been when they inherited it – and that is what they set out to do.

Read the whole thing. What is amazing has been Congress' acquiescence in all of this. But one lesson from the Savage interview is that the Bush Administration isn't the first to go down this road, only the most extreme -- and most successful.