"Is that legal?"
"I will make it legal."
Posted on 06/15/2011 12:44:58 PM PDT by tobyhill
The White House is telling Congress that President Obama has the legal authority to continue American participation in the NATO-led air war in Libya, even though lawmakers have not authorized it.
In a broader package of materials the Obama administration is sending to Congress on Wednesday defending its Libya policy, the White House, for the first time, offers lawmakers and the public an argument for why Mr. Obama has not been violating the War Powers Resolution since May 20.
On that day, the Vietnam-era law’s 60-day deadline for terminating unauthorized hostilities appeared to pass. But the White House argued that the activities of United States military forces in Libya do not amount to full-blown “hostilities” at the level necessary to involve the section of the War Powers Resolution that imposes the deadline.
“We are acting lawfully,” said Harold Koh, the State Department legal adviser, who expanded on the administration’s reasoning in a joint interview with White House Counsel Robert Bauer.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The legal issues only apply to evil Republcans.
When a good Democrat president violates a law such as the War Powers Act, there is always some excuse, some reason, some technicality involved so that the good Democrat doesn’t have to follow the law.
And his fellow good Democrats in Congress, who would be howling if a Republican president violated this law, are silent.
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“And his fellow good Democrats in Congress, who would be howling if a Republican president violated this law, are silent.”
I believe there are some Dims involved in this. Dennis The Menace, fur shure.
I never thought that I would utter the words Dennis Kucinich & correct in the same sentence!
A clearly defined impeachable offense....yeah I can see Bonehead the Speaker pushing that!
Obama is playing a game of chicken. Unfortunately the repugnicans are chickens. Where is the bill to defund?
Well, then I stand corrected, if some Democrat congressmen are concerned about Obama ignoring the War Powers Act, and are part of the pending discussion of the issue.
Don’t agree with Dems and Repubs suing the president in court.
The Judicial Branch shouldn’t get involved, Congress has a way to fix this.
It is called impeachment, if they don’t have the gonads to do it, they should leave it alone.
These guys want to have it both ways and go to someone else to take care of it when they have the power already.
(2) The fact that the President believes that he needs to play ball with the advocates of this questionable piece of legislation shows that he shares the leftist attitude of the framers of that sketchy Act.
(3) His legal team is either ignorant of, or does not want to make their case on, the executive power regarding treaties - which is the unassailable constitutional ground this intervention could easily stand on.
(4) It is bizarre that so-called "conservatives" and even self-described "Constitutionalists" would go to bat for the War Powers Act.
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"Laws ... are for lesser Kings."
It is the law until it's declared un-Constitutional by a Court. Until such time it must be obeyed. If Obama wants to make the un-Constitutional argument, then he should do so. Until then he's bound by his oath to faithfully execute the law.
On the other hand if the Pubbies had any gonads they'd strip out all funds for this misbeggoten Libyan debacle in the budget.
Criminally impeachable.
It's a race against the destruction of the US Constitution at this point, and he just may come up short.
This will be just like the “debt ceiling”. Obama and Bernacke will just keep printing money.
It’s time to stop all funding for it,,, and Impeach Obama. He is becoming a dictator.
And if Congress doesn't act, he is.
When a Republican tries something like this, the Democrats and media accuse him of “using the Constitution for toilet paper” or some such.
A Democrat president does it, and the reaction is quite different.
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