Donald Ritchie
Donald Ritchie
Donald A. Ritchieis Historian Emeritus of the United States Senate...
hats tradition wearing
There is a tradition of not wearing two hats in the government.
boxes chamber reason
It's the same reason we have spittoons and snuff boxes in the chamber. There's a veneration of the way the chamber has always operated.
cabinet member sure
Because everybody's all in the same room, just as a fail-safe situation, they make sure that there's one member of the cabinet who isn't there.
convention national party political
The first national convention of any political party was the anti-Masonic party.
attention create lucky moved onto pays presidents reason time
In general, they are lucky to get any of their recommendations adopted. A lot of commissions have filed reports, and no one pays attention. By the time they have done their work, attention has moved onto something else - which is, of course, the reason why presidents create commissions.