ABSTRACT
Much of what a president wishes to accomplish must be done in part-nership with the legislative branch. Establishing and maintaining this partnership is, as presidents have inevitably discovered, one of the great frustrations of the office. One adviser to three presidents speaks to this point: “I suspect that there may be nothing about the White House less generally understood than the ease with which a Congress can drive a president quite out of his mind and up the wall.” 1 President Theodore Roosevelt gave vent to his frustrations on one occasion when he remarked, “Oh, if I could only be President and Congress too for just ten minutes.” Even President Gerald Ford, who was a longtime member of the congressional establishment, was not in the presidency very long before he acknowledged some frustration with his former home.
