Well, Timid Is One Thing You Can't Call Him

Garrett Epps, writing in the Atlantic Monthly, comes right out of the gate with the title: "The Founders' Great Mistake". His thesis: That our revered Founding Fathers basically screwed the pooch when they created the office of the Presidency, and that their foulup is fixable.

Some of his "modest proposals" include:

• Making the office of Attorney General independently elected, not beholden to the President
• Slashing the interval between election and inauguration from eleven weeks to one
• Enumerating more-specific duties so that the office may be plausibly limited to them
• Providing for a "recall option" -- forcing the President to resign if his party is "decisively repudiated" in the midterm elections, or if her Cabinet can't be approved by Congress

Pretty bold stuff. But it sure makes you think.