The Right should re-rethink presidential power

With conservatives still smarting from Mitt Romney’s 126-vote drubbing in the Electoral College, now is the hour for “rethinking” on the Right. I’m no Nate Silver, but I’ll hazard a prediction on one result of the ongoing ideological introspection: The conservative movement is finally going to rediscover a healthy skepticism toward presidential power.

Last week, in “Restoring Constitutional Checks on the Executive,” a post on her Washington Post “Right Turn” blog, Jennifer Rubin gestured in that direction: “When Republicans were in the White House more often than Democrats, they became more than a little expedient when it came to separation of powers. It is time to return to conventional checks and balances.”