It really is only that big. Do you want to see?
Posted on 06/06/2011 9:12:48 PM PDT by Pan_Yan
Q Thursday night, the House -- or Thursday, rather, the House passed a resolution saying that the President has roughly two weeks to provide a whole bunch of information and answer a whole bunch of questions about the Libya military operation with the not-so-veiled threat that the Defense bill is coming up and that funds for that operation could be withheld if answers are not forthcoming. Does the administration intend to answer all of the demands from the House for information? And has the administration sought at all the opinion of the Office of Legal Counsel at Department of Justice, as to how closely or whether or not the White House is in compliance with the War Powers Act?
MR. CARNEY: As you know, Jake, we believe that we are acting consistent with the War Powers resolution on the issue --
Q But did you seek OLC’s guidance on that?
MR. CARNEY: I’m not aware of any special seeking of guidance that we asked for. We believe we are acting consistent with the War Powers resolution.
On the question of congressional consultations and the answering of questions, there have been numerous briefings, both classified and unclassified briefings, on the U.S. participation in the NATO mission as well as in -- on our other actions with regard to Libya. And those consultations will continue. And to the extent that those consultations -- within those consultations there are questions asked that we can answer, we will answer them without question.
But we feel confident that, A, the President is executing a policy decision that he made in exactly the manner that he said he would; that our consultations have been consistent, and that we’re acting consistently with the War Powers resolution; and finally that we would welcome and support a resolution similar to or exactly like the Kerry-McCain resolution in the Senate.
Q So you’re not going to provide any paper? It’s just if --
MR. CARNEY: Well, I don’t know. I mean, if they ask for paper, we may provide paper, but only as part of the general consultations that we’ve been having. It is simply incorrect to suggest that we haven’t been informing or consulting with Congress regularly on this important matter, because we have, and we believe it is important to consult with Congress on things like this.
Q I’m not suggesting that Congress --
MR. CARNEY: No, I know, I’m not suggesting that you’re suggesting that. I’m simply --
Q The House is suggesting it very, very clearly.
MR. CARNEY: Well, again, I would say that in response to that, we have consulted regularly and we will continue to. And we will answer questions regularly, as we have.
Q It doesn’t sound -- correct me if this interpretation is wrong -- it doesn’t sound like you take this House resolution very seriously.
MR. CARNEY: Well, we have said it was unhelpful, and we think it’s very important, as we continue to act with our partners, to implement United Nations Security Council 1973 and implement the actions that we’ve taken, the non-lethal actions we’ve taken unilaterally and multilaterally -- that we continue to do that.
We’ve made enormous progress. We think the progress will continue. We’ve been encouraged by the steps taken by the opposition in Libya. We’ve been encouraged by some of the declarations that they’ve made about their support for democratic reform. And we are encouraged by the regular indications that those around Muammar Qaddafi are beginning to realize that the future of that regime is very bleak and that the Libyan people need to be the ones who will decide who will lead them into the future.
Q Last question, I’m sorry, but it’s just the House has passed this resolution fairly handily, clearly indicating they don’t feel like they’ve been consulted enough, demanding a list of information about this operation. You’re saying it’s not helpful -- you’re suggesting that you’re not going to provide the information --
MR. CARNEY: No, I didn’t say that at all.
Q -- in written form unless they specifically request it. You might supply some of it; you might not supply other parts of this information. They have the legal authority to cut off funding for the Libya operation, and the defense bill is coming up in a couple weeks. You’re not concerned about this at all?
MR. CARNEY: We obviously take seriously our obligation to consult with Congress, and to the extent that there are questions that need to be answered, we will of course endeavor to answer them. And we take seriously concern expressed by members about questions they have about our mission here. We do believe we have acted consistent with the War Powers resolution and we do think it would be -- we would welcome the support of Congress in the form of a resolution similar to the one put forward by senators -- the bipartisan resolution put forward by Senators McCain and Kerry and others.
Beyond that, again, it will depend on the consultations we have with Congress, the questions we can answer as we go forward, but we want to continue to keep the pressure on the Qaddafi regime and continue our support for the NATO mission, which is protecting Libyan civilians from Qaddafi’s forces.
Q What is Congress has some questions --?
MR. CARNEY: Let me -- you know how this works. I’ll get to you. Go ahead.
I’m not aware of any special seeking of guidance that we asked for. We believe we are acting consistent with the War Powers resolution.
Q It doesn’t sound -- correct me if this interpretation is wrong -- it doesn’t sound like you take this House resolution very seriously.
MR. CARNEY: Well, we have said it was unhelpful, and we think it’s very important, as we continue to act with our partners, to implement United Nations Security Council 1973 and implement the actions that we’ve taken, the non-lethal actions we’ve taken unilaterally and multilaterally -- that we continue to do that.
It will be interesting to see what happens in a few weeks- who will blink? /rhetorical question
I just want someone to have him explain how dropping bombs constitutes “non-lethal actions”.
Where o’ where are those idiot hypocrite Dems that screamed from the top of their lungs concerning Bush and “the rule of law”?
Kind of blows that “rule of law” abiding the AnointedIdiot claimed he would adhere to, huh?! =.=
It really is only that big. Do you want to see?
Boehner is working his way up higher on my sh*t list. He’s a coward and I’m sick of him being a big crybaby. Come onnnnnnnnnnnnnn... what is that? He needs to see a psychiatrist. Wah wah wah, day after day, get help wimp boy.
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