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Published June 01, 2011
| FoxNews.com
Congress and Obama on Collision Course Over Libya War
"NATO and partners have just decided to extend our mission for Libya for another 90 days. This decision sends a clear message to the Qaddafi regime: We are determined to continue our operation to protect the people of Libya."
-- NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in a statement.
House Republican aides tell Power Play that a vote scheduled for today on Ohio Democrat Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s bill that would force the U.S. to withdraw from the Libyan civil war was yanked from the schedule only after it became clear that it might succeed.
“[Republican leaders] hadn’t seen much of a
threat from [the Kucinich bill]. He’s kind of this marginal figure and
having his resolution go down narrowly would be no big deal and might
even send a message to the administration,” said one of the Republican
aides. “But once they saw that there was substantial support, they were
like, ‘Whoa.’”
While it’s hardly a sure thing that
Kucinich’s bill would have drawn a majority, the broad-based, bipartisan
support for the measure prompted House leaders to set the measure aside
while figuring out how to proceed in dealing with President Obama on the ongoing Libya war.
So far, the administration has succeeded in
flouting Congressional authority on the war. Past presidents have all
been dismissive of the War Powers Resolution and members of Congress
have even derided the legislation as an unconstitutional abridgement of
their exclusive power to declare war, but both branches have abided by
the law just the same since it was passed over Richard Nixon’s
veto in 1973. It has been the imperfect agreement by which presidents
and lawmakers have navigated the minor conflicts of the Cold War
(Grenada, etc.), unipolar transitional periods (Bosnia, Somalia, etc.) and the current conflicts with militant Islamists.
But Obama has said that the resolution does
not apply to the war because the U.S. commitment was too small to merit
any kind of Congressional authorization. The War Powers Resolution says
that Obama, having failed to obtain congressional authorization within
the first 60 days of the conflict, is now in a 30-day period in which he
must disengage U.S. forces. He’s got just a little more than two weeks
before he is in clear violation.
Obama doesn’t want to bow to any
congressional limitations on his power to make war. If he did, it could
imperil his covert campaign in Pakistan and other smaller-bore operations, like drone strikes in Yemen
etc. He may intend to break the back of the resolution, or to simply
force Congress to fold on the issue, forever rendering it moot. Like his
move to blow up the public financing of elections, Obama may be
interested in making some history and expanding his powers.
The announcement of a 90-day extension of
the NATO commitment to the stalemated civil war that has left Libya
split along deep, centuries old tribal lines suggests that Obama is
suiting up for a constitutional showdown in defense of the U.N.-backed
mission.
Just because Republicans pulled back the
Kucinich measure doesn’t mean that they are not concerned about where
the Libya train is heading. Note well that Sen. John Cornyn,
R-Texas, part of the Senate leadership, was among the signatories to
the letter notifying Obama that his 60-day grace period to wage
unauthorized war had elapsed.
But the question is how will they confront
Obama over this without A) seeming to undercut American forces in the
field and B) setting a defensible new precedent for limiting
presidential war powers. This is a generational question that Republican
leaders don’t want to get wrong.
No Need For AC at Obama-House GOP Meeting
“Hopefully this vote will illustrate to
Treasury Secretary Geithner and the 110+ House Democrats who’ve demanded
a clean increase that this approach is not acceptable or responsible.”
-- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
President Obama will talk this morning to
the Republican members of the House as the nation watches Washington in
hopes that a fiscal train wreck can be averted.
But all public signs from both sides suggest it’s full speed ahead toward a summer of partisan rancor.
On Tuesday night, Republicans demonstrated
there was no path forward for the president’s initial request of an
increase to the nation’s $14.3 trillion borrowing limit without
preconditions for spending cuts. Half of House Democrats defected on a
test vote put forward by Republicans on a law that would have met
Obama’s demand.
It was a defeat for the president and further proof that Democrats have to first agree amongst themselves on a debt plan before the issue can be resolved.
Obama, meanwhile, is flexing his own muscle.
As Democrats abandon ship, the administration is using its megaphone to
denounce Republicans as risking a default on federal obligations and an
international economic crisis.
Even the president’s selection of a replacement for outgoing Commerce Secretary Gary Locke
is a demonstration of the sharpening partisan divide in Washington.
Obama tapped John Bryson, a former California utility executive who is
more famous for helping to found the environmentalist group the Natural
Resources Defense Council.
Obama tapping an environmental activist and
ardent supporter of a crackdown on carbon emissions to head an agency
that is supposed to facilitate business growth does not suggest the president is in much of a conciliatory mood.
Vice President Joe Biden
recently helped explain the administration’s return to a more
confrontational approach. The president’s team believes that the
Republican embrace of a Medicare overhaul and the killing of Usama bin Laden have given the president the juice to roll over the GOP next year.
That new post-killing, Mediscare swagger,
may prompt Obama to walk a little closer to the edge of an August 2
deadline for raising the debt limit or facing a partial government
shutdown.
For their part, Republicans aren’t expecting much out of today’s White House meeting.
“He’s going to get a fair hearing,” said one
senior House aide. “But I frankly don’t expect much more than a lecture
on what he believes our obligations are.”
Weiner Woes Deepen
“I’m going to have to ask that we follow
some rules here. One of them is going to be you ask questions and I’ll
do the answers. That seem reasonable? Would that be reasonable, you the
questions, I do the answers, and this jackass interrupts me? How about
that as the rule of the game? Let me just give the answer.”
-- Rep. Anthony Weiner, D.N.Y. chiding a reporter and producer from CNN for pressing him to answer whether the crotch in a photo posted on his Twitter account is his.
Power Play hates to fault lawmakers for poor
communications efforts. After all, public officials should be judged on
how they execute their duties, not how well they schmooze the press.
But in the case of Democratic New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, one must cry out: What is that guy thinking?
Weiner held a press conference on Tuesday to
address questions about a picture of a man’s tumescent, underwear-clad
groin that had been posted on his Twitter account and directed at a
co-ed from Washington State.
Well, actually, he held the press conference
to avoid the questions. In a snappish, sometimes surreal series of
exchanges, the unfortunately named lawmaker bickered with the press and
refused to answer the two big questions surrounding the scandal: Is it
his crotch? Was this a “hack,” as his office first said, or a “prank” as
the office later described the incident?
Establishment press outlets, even those
which were at first credulous about Weiner’s claim that he was the
victim, have thrown up their well-manicured hands in bewilderment at
Weiner’s stonewalling.
If he really wanted to move past the issue and talk about the debt ceiling and Clarence Thomas,
as he has said, why wouldn’t he issue a brief, flat denial about the
provenance of the photo and say one time whether this was a criminal,
hostile hacking or a non-criminal prank?
Even assuming the scenario in the light most
favorable to the congressman, this has been a total botch. Summoning
reporters, stonewalling them and then barking at legitimate questions is
not a great credibility builder.
The speculation that Weiner would run for
New York mayor has now been squashed, and despite his insistence about
directing his own avenues of discussion, it looks likely that Weiner
will be forced to keep addressing the issue.
Texas Dems Try to Thwart Perry Run
"If you want to live in a high-tax state,
or state that has a lot of big, costly government programs, than you're
free to stay there. Or, you can move back to a state like Texas."
-- Texas Gov. Rick Perry talking to reporters about an upcoming special session of the state’s legislature.
Texas Democrats succeeded in filibustering a
budget-slashing spending plan from Gov. Rick Perry and his fellow
Republicans, forcing the potential 2012 presidential contender to delay
any announcement for at least another week.
But Perry may be able to turn the move in
his favor. He has called the legislature back into special session,
which means different procedures that preclude the tiny Democratic
minority in the state Senate from blocking the plan which cuts $15
billion over two years, including $4 billion in school cuts staunchly
opposed by state government worker unions.
Perry has taken some knocks from fiscal
conservatives in the past for not reining in spending sufficiently.
Taking a hard line on a big budget fight is helping Perry, a former
Democrat who has become a conservative darling, claim some of the fiscal
hawk status so coveted currently in the GOP.
Perry has also taken advantage of the budget
crisis to add a proposal overhauling the state’s Medicare program to
his call for this special session. Perry has pushed for major changes in
the way states obtain and spend Medicare funds and may be able to now
move forward. You may not have noticed but it’s kind of a hot topic with
Republicans right now.
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman will call on
Perry Thursday as part of an ongoing effort to establish some
conservative bona fides (he penned a Wall Street op-ed heavy on Reagan
references and downplayed his personal relationship with his former
boss, President Obama in a new interview at Real Clear Politics). While
he’s in Austin, Huntsman will also no doubt be trying to get a read on
Perry’s presidential aspirations.
Those wondering about Perry’s leaning need
only look at the press conference he held to announce the special
session. That guy was feeling it.
Palinpalooza Rolls On
“I don't think I owe anything to the
mainstream media. I think it would be a mistake for me to become some
kind of conventional politician and doing things the way that it's
always been done with the media in terms of relationship with them,
telling them to come along and 'we'll orchestrate this, we'll script
this and we'll basically write a story for you' media about what we're
doing every day. No, I want them to have to do a little bit of work on a
tour like this and that would include not necessarily telling them
beforehand where every stop is going to be.”
-- Sarah Palin “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.”
Sarah Palin is continuing to drive the press
corps batty with her unscripted, unscheduled bus tour through the
Northeast and points unknown.
A CBS journalist warned that a young
producer could be hurt in a car crash trying to trail Palin’s tour bus
as it makes its way up the I-95 Corridor, and pressies in general are
exasperated by the cat and mouse game Palin is playing.
Palin, for her part, seems to be loving it.
She told Greta Van Susteren that it is all part of her unconventional
approach to public life and showed some pleasure at the thought of
turning the tables on an establishment press corps that has so bedeviled
her.
She is taunting them now: You’re the ones following me, so don’t complain.
When Palin popped in for a pizza dinner with Donald Trump,
the press corps was like moths splattering themselves against a
million-candle-powered searchlight. And the closer her land yacht rolls
to New Hampshire, the greater the anticipation and interest becomes.
And Now, A Word From Charles
“This is the sequel: Summer of Recovery
II. I'm sure they will announce it next year as well. Probably happen in
2018, the way it's going. We're seeing a historically, extremely,
unusually weak recovery.
I notice when the press characterizes
these numbers like the one on housing today, the word ‘unexpectedly’ is
used. What is unexpected about it? We have 1.8 percent growth in the
economy, extremely anemic. We have a sky-high price for energy and food,
which is stealing money out of the consumer economy. We have 9 percent
unemployment and we have this historic drop in the price of housing.
There is nothing unexpected about it.”
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