It was also my idea that the advisory committees of the Academy should replace the legal committees of the German Reichstag which was gradually fading into the background in the Reich.

So influenced by these advisors and this hope I have at length allowed my friends to publish the work as they had long besought me to do.

Among the weeds choking out growth and good government are the hundreds of boards commissions and advisory committees that have sprouted over the years. They devour time money and energy far beyond any real contribution they make.

As a 22-year Army Veteran who served in Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom and as a Civilian Advisor to the Afghan Army in Operation Enduring Freedom I understand both the gravity of giving the order and the challenge of carrying it out.

In high school I was on the youth advisory council for the Mayor's Office of Los Angeles and that was kind of my first experience in the bureaucratic system. We tried to get things done and nobody was really interested in getting anything done.

What if Barack Obama established a Presidential Advisory Committee that would meet once every couple of months bringing together the former presidents for a conference in order to seek their collective wisdom? There is a wealth of experience in former presidents that generally goes untapped.