There is a saying, “politics makes for strange bedfellows.”
Left And Right Meet
No where is that saying more appropriate than in reference to a floor speech that conservative icon and United States Congressman Tom McClintock, earlier in the week delivered to the House of Representatives. It was a speech in support of a resolution authored by hard-line leftist Dennis Kucinich regarding President Obama’s Libya policy, and the blatant violation of the War Powers Act and the Constitution as the President did not seek prior approval from Congress before a de facto declaration of war on Libya, and the commitment of significant United States resources towards military action in that country.
There is another saying, that if left goes left, and right goes right, there is a circle and eventually you meet on the other side of it… McClintock’s American Conservate Union rating is a perfect 100, while Kucinich scores a perfect 0.
Here are Tom McClintock’s remarks, that I believe are 100% on the mark…
U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock
M. Speaker:
Lets be clear: without prior Congressional authorization, under the War Powers Act, the President may only commit armed forces to hostilities for sixty days if there is a direct attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions or its armed forces.
There was none, so there is no sixty day clock and the President’s unprovoked attack on Libya – from Day One – constituted an illegal and unconstitutional act of the highest significance.
If the President felt there was moral justification to attack Libya, he was constitutionally required to make his case to Congress and get its authorization. He did not.
Some say, “we’re already committed; it’s too late for Congress to order a withdrawal without harming America’s reputation or undermining her allies.” If we take that position, then we have just changed the Constitution to read as follows: “The President may attack any country he wants for any reason he wants and the Congress has no choice but to follow.”
The President has crossed a bright Constitutional line and this Congress has a clear moral and Constitutional duty to intervene.
If we fail to do so, we will have destroyed the work of the American founders by fundamentally changing the legislative and executive functions on the most momentous decision our nation can make and take our country down dark and bloody roads the American Founders sought to avoid.
Despite the clarity of the case made by McClintock and Kucinich (among others), the House defeated this resolution (which would have pulled the U.S. out of the Libya Campaign within 15 days) by a vote of 148-265 (87 Republicans and 61 Democrats voted for it).
After rejecting the Kucinich Resolution, the House on Thursday approved a much more moderate resolution offered by Speaker John Boehner barring the use of American ground forces in Libya and demanding the White House turn over internal documents related to President Barack Obama’s decision to order U.S. forces to take part in the NATO-led campaign. The Boehner resolution passed the House on a vote of 268-145 (45 Democrats crossed over to support the resolution).