Political Parties: Are they Factions, or Are they Rife with Faction, Pt II

As we discussed, in Federalist 51 Madison argued that in addition to separating powers we need the additional checks and balances:

But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others.

Congress has the necessary means to check the president -- hold hearings, pass legislation -- but its been questionable whether a Republican Congress has the necessary motives. And the Wite House is trying to reduce the motivation of Congress to Check: The conservative Insight Magazine reports how

Congressional sources said Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove has threatened to blacklist any Republican who votes against the president. The sources said the blacklist would mean a halt in any White House political or financial support of senators running for re-election in November.

"It's hardball all the way," a senior GOP congressional aide said.

Based on that article we might expect a few House Members to get a call from Rove, too. According to Republican Who Oversees N.S.A. Calls for Wiretap Inquiry in the 2.8.06 New York Times,

[Representative Heather] Wilson, who was a National Security Council aide in the administration of President Bush's father, is the first Republican on either the House's Intelligence Committee or the Senate's to call for a full Congressional investigation into the program, in which the N.S.A. has been eavesdropping without warrants on the international communications of people inside the United States believed to have links with terrorists.

The congresswoman's discomfort with the operation appears to reflect deepening fissures among Republicans over the program's legal basis and political liabilities. Many Republicans have strongly backed President Bush's power to use every tool at his disposal to fight terrorism, but 4 of the 10 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voiced concerns about the program at a hearing where Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales testified on Monday.

The article continues:

A growing number of Republicans have called in recent days for Congress to consider amending federal wiretap law to address the constitutional issues raised by the N.S.A. operation.

"Addressing the constitutional issues raised" could mean several things of course, such as autorizing all past and future presidential actions. Certainly that would be the White House preference, if any action is taken.