The President of the United States, says the Constitution, cannot act in many specified instances without the "advice and consent" of Congress. But "advice" is not a strong word. And taking or not taking advice is a fairly nebulous situation . . . creating an instability, a fundamental ambiguity, at the very heart of power, between the Congress and the President. It is this instability, and this wide-openness, that allows the free play of the more intangible types of power that begin where the constitution breaks off: sex, personality, and character. Things which are left out of civics textbooks are what Allen Drury took as his subject in such novels as
Advise and Consent
,
A Shade of Difference
, and
Capable of Honor
.