I always believed a big part of Dubya’s success in the elections of 2000 and 2004 is that he had the good fortune of running against two of the most reviled liberals of the time.
On the other hand, there is no doubt at all that the republican in congress and the senate would have prevented Gore or Kerry from getting away with some of the things they eagerly helped Dubya implement.
Imagine the republican reaction if Al Gore as president had allowed the Saudis to fly out of America the day after 9/11. Or is he had been the one to keep secret the Saudi involvement with the 9/11 terrorists. Or if he tried to pass the Patriot Act.
Your post made me do some kind of handstand. I always look at things indignant at how hard the (what I used to call the) lib media would take everything a republican did, and how hypocritical they were. But as you point out, WE the constitution lovers would have thrown a never ending fit if Gore has sneaked out all the Saudis during the time when Americans couldn’t travel by air. And we didn’t fuss too much (though it was a topic on FR) when Bush did it: we decided to trust him.