Cato Institute scholars Gene Healy and Timothy Lynch discuss the record of the President in Power Surge: The Constitutional Record of George W. Bush. The authors make the convincing claim that despite the limits placed in the Constitution the President has sought to strip these limits and increase federal power particularly presidential power. THe site a few examples in the summary:

• a federal government empowered to regulate core political speech—and restrict it greatly when it counts the most: in the days before a federal election;
  
• a president who cannot be restrained, through validly enacted statutes, from pursuing any tactic he believes to be effective in the war on terror;
  
• a president who has the inherent constitutional authority to designate American citizens suspected of terrorist activity as "enemy combatants," strip them of any constitutional protection, and lock them up without charges for the duration of the war on terror— in other words, perhaps forever; and
  
• a federal government with the power to supervise virtually every aspect of American life, from kindergarten, to marriage, to the grave.

Please Read Power surge to get the full low-down on the Bush Record.

Thanks, Miss Judy -- I have another timeline to add, also.

Mindy,

you are welcome. Good time line.