Josh Marshall is an astute political observer, and this post constitutes his reaction to the presidents troop surge plan. Unfortunately, he does not give a lot of context for this to be read in a vacuum. He does do a good job of giving historical context, however (probably due to his background as a history student).

This is an opinion piece. The author provides a credible (probably arguable but not argumentative) interpretation of the Constitution, a personal bias in one direction, and an argument for going against his own bias. He links to facts behind his reason to recommend against his normal bias.

No specific examples given of Constitutional framers' intent, Congressional war declarations, use of funding to limit war. This evidence is easily found, but absent here. Paragraph on the lack of popular support for the Iraq war has some links, but lacks support for "foreign policy establishment ... is also overwhelmingly against escalation".

This blog post expresses the view that the Bush administration has demonstrated contempt for our system of government and that it is incumbent upon Congress to exercise the power of the purse to control the course of the Iraq war. Public opinion is well sourced but the rest isn't. It is a very partisan piece, but makes some interesting points.

Thoughtful and historically informed thoughts on the proper duties of the Congress in relation to the Executive Branch.

A restatement of political options already generally known. Marshalls conclusions are opinion of course but he does support his case. Constitutional debates are trendy now so this approach may resonate with readers.

This is an opinion piece. As such, it is OK, but as reporting it falls short. Marshall has been proven wrong too many times to be a credible source.

I wish the mainstream media would research history and take a look at the constitution like the author of this story has. Maybe they are pretending not to know for some other insidious reason!

It is a clear, concise statement of an argument for congressional action to rein in an imperial presidency.