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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (4668)	10/26/2005 5:35:16 PM
From: wonk	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541674

>> Whether you like it or not, most people in Congress are patriotic. If the President goes to Congress and ask to go to war, Congress will tend to give the President the benefit of the doubt. Sorry Mary, I can't say I agree...and I have two points here: While I agree with you points overall that Congress’ lust for re-election more often than not trumps its patriotism, I think that conclusion misses - in part – Mary’s point or at least the point I would make in regards to the Iraq War. Regardless of one’s political party or philosophical persuasion, the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has – or should have - far greater knowledge and insight regarding threats to this country. Hence, when the President – and it doesn’t matter if it Bush, Clinton or James Buchanan – comes before you and states that a threat is imminent, whether expressed or implied, one must place great weight on the statement. You might not want to, but the very fact that in a public forum the elected head of the Executive Branch says so, one must begin with the presumption that the matter is serious. That’s why the current administration has pushed back so hard that it never used the phrase “imminent threat.” That’s why they fight so hard to deny that “…the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.” To ever concede such would be to concede that the Administration usurped the rights of the people – through their Constitutionally appointed representatives – to decide the issue of war. Let’s not sugar coat it: that’s fomenting revolution against the Constitution of the United States. Of course, the politics dictate that the responsibility for peace and war is a game of hot potato – each side trying to make sure that the other takes the blame if something goes wrong. That’s why the War Power Resolution has never been fully brought before the Supreme Court – by either branch – since its enactment in 1973. I expect the Congress to tap-dance and vacillate. I expect the President to play politics. Heck, I would even expect him to wiggle his finger at me and say “…I did not have sex with that woman….” But if I was a Representative, I would never expect a bald-faced lie, to my face, on the most serious vote – a vote to send my fellow citizens to their deaths - that would likely every come before me. ww