George Mason

Because our history classes tend to shortchange the founding fathers who did not serve as president, George Mason has been overlooked. Kris at Dummocrats.com noticed that while reading a book (Charles Mee's "The Genuis of the People") on the Constitutional Convention.

One of the things that's so great about Mason (and really, this applies to so many of the Framers) is that he didn't go to the Convention strictly to advance the cause of "his kind". I know some Democrats won't understand this, but Mason went against his own self interest and instead tried to do what he believed was right for his country.

Since we are discussing the founding fathers, Betsy Newmark found this on Friday.
Ann Althouse links to the debates in the Constitutional Convention to show that Madison originally supported saying that the president could appoint judges with only 1/3 concurrence from the Senate.

Personally, I don't put a lot of weight on that because when debating today's issues we could go back and find some quote or an idea which was considered over 200 years ago and twist the original intent to suit the side we are espousing. However, in the current filibuster argument it is worth remembering that if the framers of the Constitution wanted to require greater than 50% approval of presidential appointments they could have done so.