Word: bricker
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...number of times Senator Bricker has invoked the Constitution as the sacred vessel of all that is praise-worthy in America is past counting. His proposed amendment, thus, seems somewhat anamalous. Despite our feeling that cant has dominated his incantations, it is still surprising that so ardent a defender of the Constitution should want to alter that document as drastically as he does...
...would be valid in the absence of treaty. This is not a return to the Articles of Confederation by any means, for the federal government's share of power is much larger than it once was. Nevertheless, much of the most elementary stuff of foreign affairs would fall within Bricker's charmed circle. As the New York Times pointed out, even the common-garden "friendship, commerce, navigation" agreements which are made with every friendly nation in the world and which provide the foundations of all our foreign intercourse would come under the strictures of the which clause...
Section 3 would wipe out this balance by giving the legislature an exclusive, if residual, authority. Congress has been no less prone to abuse authority than the President, no less in need of the restraints inherent in a checks and balance system. Once Bricker had his way, the hundreds of agreements which diplomacy requires daily would become so many levers by which Congressmen could pry out of the executive satisfaction for their peeves and private theories...
...Much Sense. In an afterthought, Ike added that the Bricker amendment need never worry his Administration. It takes a long time to get an amendment passed, and the Bricker amendment, he was quite sure, would not affect the next three years. He was making his fight out of his belief and concern for what is good for the future of the U.S. The three-year reference inspired the United Press' alert political reporter, John Cutter, later in the conference, to ask if that meant that Ike was announcing himself as a one-term President. Ike grinned, flushed and ducked...
Some White House callers have said privately that Ike is determined not to run for a second term. Last week such reports gained momentum when Ike told newsmen that the Bricker amendment would not affect his Administration, since it could not be adopted in the next three years. The statement caused concern among some Republican leaders, who think that the 1956 campaign will be waged on the Eisenhower record, and that the best candidate for that platform will be Dwight Eisenhower...