Democrats tasteless revenge plan is a dead end thanks to the Constitution

Senate and House Democrats haven’t taken back the gavels yet, but they’re already talking serious trash.“Lawyer up,” incoming House Oversight Committee Chair Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) warned President Donald Trump and his aides on election night.Not exactly subtle.Rep.Analilia Mejia (D-NJ) dialed it up even further: “We’re going to toss out subpoenas like Mardi Gras beads.”Keep it classy, Analilia.On the campaign trail before the electoral bloodbath, Democrats purported to prioritize affordability and cost-of-living issues.The joke’s on us, it seems.The mask is slipping and the truth is coming out: All Democrats really seek to do with their incoming congressional majorities is to wreak as much havoc on the Trump administration as possible.They’ve barely even deigned to offer a reason for doing so.To be sure, corruption is a real concern; congressional Republicans risk obstructing investigations on such grounds at their peril.But the occasional mention of corruption aside, Democrats just want to make the administration’s life hell for the sake of making it hell.It won’t be that easy for them.The Constitution would like a word, and White House Counsel Will Scharf is here to offer it.In a tour-de-force missive to Garcia, Scharf argued, “Congressional investigations must further a legitimate legislative task.”Failure to identify such a legitimate legislative end, Scharf warned, “represents a clear abuse of power and an affront to our constitutional system of government.”Democrats can prattle for the cameras all they’d like.But fact is, Scharf is right.Let’s go back to basics.“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined,” James Madison explained in The Federalist No.

45.The executive branch has two primary defined powers: the executive power and the commander-in-chief power.The former is the law enforcement power — to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”And the la...