Your point that he traded the Constitution for political popularity and political maneuvering room is well taken.
It's also worth noting that parties and pols that do this a lot get noticed by the people eventually, who rightly wonder if they're worth voting for.
Zero principles and maximum tactical radius for the pol adds up eventually to public repudiation. Klintoon relied on his constitutional term limits to exit office before his wages of retribution arrived.....and then he was going to pretend he was a "great" president. Yeah, right.
I can't do anything outside of agreeing with you. A lot of folks here preach "this is the way the game is played" and if we don't play by the same degraded rules we will loose. What they don't see is that if the pubs started to play by the real Constitutional rules folks like you and me would give them money and support. I'd love to see a battle for political office based on character and honer. But until they (the republicrats) decide to actually take the hard road to a true govenment ruled by the "LAW" thay are lost to me and a lot of other folks.
EBUCK