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I shall post videos, graphs, news stories, and other material there. We shall use some of this material in class, and you may review the rest at your convenience. You will all receive invitations to post to the blog. (Please let me know if you do not get such an invitation.) I encourage you to use the blog in these ways:
To post questions or comments about the readings before we discuss them in class;
To follow up on class discussions with additional comments or questions.
To post relevant news items or videos.

There are only two major limitations: no coarse language, and no derogatory comments about people at the Claremont Colleges.


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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Two Congresses, Two Chambers

http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Article1


But it is not possible to give to each department an equal power of self-defense. In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates. The remedy for this inconveniency is to divide the legislature into different branches; and to render them, by different modes of election and different principles of action, as little connected with each other as the nature of their common functions and their common dependence on the society will admit. It may even be necessary to guard against dangerous encroachments by still further precautions.



A Senate session.

A House session:

One major difference between the chambers is that few House members run for president, and seldom get far when they do (see Duncan Hunter and Dennis Kucinich). But a fairly large fraction of senators have gone for the White House.
  • Lamar Alexander (R-TN) 1996, 2000
  • Tom Harkin (D-IA) 1992
  • Orrin Hatch (R-UT) 2000
  • John Kerry (D-MA) 2004
  • Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) 2004
  • Richard Lugar (R-IN) 1996
  • John McCain (R-AZ) 2000, 2008
  • And of course rememember President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Secretary of State Clinton.

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