<Li> The Senate does not "advise and consent to" appointments to the Executive Office of the President (with only a handful of exceptions), as it does with cabinet appointments . A corollary is that EOP personnel may act independently of, without regard for, and without accountability to Congress . </Li> <Li> The presidency relies on powers that exceed the Constitution . The extent of foreign policy and war powers of the presidency are questioned . Also, the extent of presidential secrecy is questioned . See The Imperial Presidency . </Li> <Li> The plebiscitary presidency is a presidency that is accountable only during elections or impeachment, rather than daily to the Congress, the press, and the public . </Li> <P> The presidencies of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were particularly described as surrounded by "courts" in which junior staffers acted occasionally in contravention of executive orders or Acts of Congress . The activities of some Nixon staffers during the Watergate affair are often held up as an example . Under Reagan (1981--1989), the role of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, USMC, in the facilitation of funding to the Contras in Nicaragua, in explicit contravention of a congressional ban, has been highlighted as an example of the ability to act by a "junior courtier" based on his position as a member of a large White House staff . Howard Baker, who served as Reagan's last Chief of Staff, was critical of the growth, complexity, and apparent unanswerability of the presidential "court ." </P>

Who was charged with being an imperial president