COEUR d'ALENE - Power can be addicting.

Combined with the mystique the country has placed around the Oval Office, the cult-like following television reports, talking heads, and constituents have created around the presidency, and the recipe is one the Framers of the Constitution tried to avoid.

Unfortunately, Dr. David Adler said Thursday, the country is already there: Too much power lies at the fingertips of American presidents. Not just one, all presidents since the Cold War.

It's called "Imperial Presidency," and it's the road the country has been on for the last half century.

"Why should we be concerned," Adler, a constitutional scholar, author and director of the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University, asked the approximately 120 people who attended his lecture at the Coeur d'Alene Library. "That's a rhetorical question."

Presidents, from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama, have skirted the Constitution on decision making, especially on foreign affairs like acts of war. But casting blame at the presidents' feet is missing the crux of the problem.

It's Congress, Adler said.

More to the point, it's Congress's willingness to not act.

"Why is that?" Adler said. "Because those are frankly congressional problems. It is Congress that has the Constitutional authority to address each and every one of those problems. The president has no authority under the Constitution to tackle those problems."

And not just issues of war. Energy policy, immigration reform, addressing the fiscal situation - those aren't issues for the Commander in Chief, they're policies Congress should be crafting.

But they don't. And when you turn on the television or pick up a newspaper, it's the president who's the center of attention. It's an "obsession" that focuses on a president down to his golf game or vacation itinerary that allows Congress to duck the limelight that should shine on its inactivity.

"It in fact encourages irresponsibility by members of Congress because they simply can pass the buck," Adler said. "They can defer to the president."

It's exactly what the Framers tried to avoid when they outlined the Republic, he said. They gave those powers to Congress because they favored discourse, the combined wisdom, between members to reach a desired outcome. They didn't trust one person to ever make the most important decisions for a nation.

"They had learned from their origins," he said of avoiding a king's rule. "The last thing they wanted was to give that awesome power, that war power, to the president."

But a culture of inactivity in Congress has gained steam over the last 50 years because lobbying and big money campaigns makes taking a stand on tough issues a roadblock to re-election. Career politicians do exist, said Adler, who has interviewed with nearly every major news publication from C-SPAN to the New York Times.

And it can be difficult to blame a president for exercising overreaching power. If the nation looks to the president to solve a major problem, who would vote for a presidential candidate who said, 'Sorry, that's not in my power to solve?'

Adler asked the 120 people just that, and two hands went up.

"All of us look to the presidency as a problem solver," he said.

The core of the solution rests with the voters, Adler added. Hold congressmen accountable. If each member's re-election was based on finding solutions to policies that need addressing - and not looking to or blaming the Oval Office - they would be more likely to respond accordingly.

If that never changes?

"There will be no reason for Congress to act like a grown up," he said, and the country will continue down its path toward an Imperial Presidency.