The Minister Is Not Responsible
To Congress, Nor Is The Chairman Of The Committee In Any Way Bound
To Support The Minister.
It is presumed that the chairman must know
the minister's secrets; but the chairman may be bound by party
considerations to use those secrets against the minister.
The system of committees appears to me to be good as regards the
work of legislation. It seems well adapted to effect economy of
time and the application of special men to special services. But I
am driven to think that that connection between the chairmen of the
committees and the ministers which I have attempted to describe is
an arrangement very imperfect in itself, but plainly indicating the
necessity of some such close relation between the executive and the
legislature of the United States as does exist in the political
system of Great Britain. With us the Queen's minister has a greater
weight in Parliament than the President's minister could hold in
Congress, because the Queen is bound to employ a minister in whom
the Parliament has confidence. As soon as such confidence ceases,
the minister ceases to be minister. As the Crown has no politics of
its own, it is simply necessary that the minister of the day should
hold the politics of the people as testified by their
representatives. The machinery of the President's government cannot
be made to work after this fashion. The President himself is a
political officer, and the country is bound to bear with his
politics for four years, whatever those politics may be.
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