In Federalist #84, Alexander Hamilton asked, �For why declare that things shall not be done, which there is no power to do?� To Hamilton (and his co-authors, John Jay and James Madison) such a question made sense. How could the national government exercise authority not granted to it by the newly proposed Constitution? It could not, they insisted.

President Obama had better head for an undisclosed location because thanks to last week’s electoral victories, incoming GOP committee chairmen are about to drop a little oversight “shock and awe” on the West Wing.

�The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.� James Madison, Federalist No. 45, January 26, 1788.

Debates between candidates for Senate are providing plenty of programming for C-SPAN in these days leading up to the November elections. The dramatis personae are familiar to anyone with even passing interest in the electoral show that comes to the stage in several states in late October.

It is that time in the wild kingdom of politics where all the elephants and donkeys make their biennial migration toward the great electoral watering hole known as the Swing Voter. This lake lies right in the middle of Campaign Land and gets awfully crowded as scores of thirsty office seekers stampede to stake claim to their little patch of ground close enough to irrigate the quest for electoral victory.

In the taxonomy of politics circa 2010, the Tea Party is typically classified as the party of the Constitution. Newspapers nationwide have chronicled the conservative diaspora from the GOP to the Tea Party. Proponents of small government and those anxious for a return to constitutional principles rejoice at the rise of an alternative to the big government, spend-happy, interventionist, two-headed hound that for decades has skulked along the Potomac River, guarding the entrance to the halls of government.

Just after lunch on Wednesday, September 29, a hearing convened in the Rayburn House Office Building. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade, called to order a meeting of academics and lawyers to discuss the advisability of a congressional clampdown on “jihadist websites.”

Not surprisingly, it was the Nestor of the Founding Generation who made the most lasting and dramatic impact on the final day of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Benjamin Franklin, hobbled by gout, was the central player in three scenes of the final act of this history-changing event.

As Schoolhouse Rock taught us: “Three is a magic number.” Tom Tancredo learned that lesson well. He is a third-party candidate in a three-way race for Governor of Colorado. He breaks the rule, however, when it comes to the polling data. According to a Rasmussen Reports poll released on Tuesday, Tancredo has pulled ahead of the Republican candidate, Dan Maes, by a four-percent margin.

James Bridle, founder of a website called BookTwo, has turned his forensic focus on the history of edits, updates, and clarifications made to the Wikipedia entry for the “Iraq War.”