Power must be shared

It seems that the Republicans in the Senate want to rewrite the Constitution. They claim that if Dick Cheney becomes vice president that they will have a 51 to 50 majority. The Constitution is quite clear on some topics and one of them is the separation of powers. We have three branches of government, the executive, the legislative and the judicial. For the Republicans to legitimately claim a majority in the Senate they would have to combine two of those branches. That is blatantly unconstitutional and will ensure that we end up with yet more litigation over who is in charge of this country.

As Washingtonians we know that our evenly divided state House has co-chairs for all committees. This is not an unworkable form of government as Trent Lott claims. It has worked here. It is the legal way to deal with this situation; it is also the fair way. It is unfortunate that the Republican leadership is so bent on keeping power that they are willing to do anything to stay there – including subverting the Constitution.

Arlington

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