[jf55510]

If you believe in an Original view of the Constitution then you MUST disagree with CIFUS.

Nonsense, under the Commerce Clause the Constution gives the power to Congress to regulate commerce. Under the necessary and proper clause, Congress has the ability to divest itself of power. The brillance of the Constitution is that it tells what the maximum power of each branch of the government, but the government doesn't have to take all that power. So if Congress thinks that it is better that a committee look at approval of these type of deals, then Congress can do it. Another example is federal court jurisdiction. The Constitution lays out all areas in which federal courts can possibly have jurisdiction, but Congress has not given the Court all the powers that they possibly could.

The Committee for Foreign Investment review process was set up to be confidential and beyond Congress' reach specifically to insulate sensitive business investments from political forces,

Which is an excellent idea. Congress can't be trusted to keep national security secrets, secret. If this had come before a Congressional panel, it would have been leaked long ago, along with confidential trade secrets. Now, I am not saying that Congress shouldn'y have more oversight, I am sure they probably do, (Throw a couple of Congressmen on the Committee or something along those lines) but to leave stuff like this under Congress' total control would be a mistake.

[unseen]

I agree that Congress has divested many of its powers over the course of its history while picking up some that it never had. That being said if Congress would have had a hearing on this I don't think Bush's approval rating would have hit 24%. I don't think secrecy is ever a good thing in the long run. The more secrets that are kept the more the powers that be want to keep secrets (Bush admin is a prime example, the secercy thing is killing them in the polls even if some is necessary). Congress like it or not is the people's leaders. If we can not trust them to keep State Security secrets than who can we trust? The problem with divestiture of powers is that it does not happen in a vacuum. If Congress losses power, the President or the Court gains powers. I believe all power should be parceled out as equally as possible. A super strong president is as much of a danger to this country as a super strong congress or a super strong court. Look at the social problems caused by the court over the last 30 years because Congress has seeded some of its powers to the Court. Same for military matters, Korea,Vietnam, now Iraq have all turned into problems because Congress seeded its power to declare war thus unpopular wars are being fought without the backing of the people. If Congress would stand up and declare war then they are held responsible not the president. I think we are seeing a shift in the power base of Washington. Bush it appears may have done in the last year what Congress has been unable to do since FDR and that is to become an equal or perhaps greater power in Washington than the President.