Читать книгу Keeping the Republic - Christine Barbour - Страница 83

The founders knew what kind of man they wanted to hold the presidency; George Washington was right in front of them, a model executive. But they left that description unspoken. Implied by the rules is the norm of independence—a separate executive and legislature make it difficult to ram through legislation and the Constitution strictly guards against any allegiance to another country (hence the requirement of natural-born citizenship and the complicated emoluments clause, which forbids the president from taking expensive gifts from another country). They also wanted the president to demonstrate dignity. The office combines the jobs of head of government (the political role) and head of state (the symbolic role). Truth to tell, they never imagined a government as large and complex as ours is today, so the head-of-government role didn’t loom as large. But the head-of-state role, representing the country as a whole, was key. So the founders implied the norm of unity, of representing the entire country. Finally, it is clear from the impeachment powers of Congress and from limits such as the emoluments clause that the founders had created a limited executive who could be removed from office by Congress for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” So another executive norm is that the president is bound by the rule of law.