Reply #13: De-Authorizing a War??? [View All]

[maine_raptor]

Not sure how that would work exactly.

In order to get a veto-proof bill you need votes, 292 in the House and 67 in the Senate. Since this will be started in the Senate, the first test will be there. Are there 67 votes? It might be close. There will be some repub defections, but probably not 17. It will depend on just what is going on in Iraq at the time. As for the House; 75 plus votes or more, are you kidding? But, once again, all depends on this War of Bush's Ego there too.

Second, just what would happen if the bill was passed, the veto overridden, and thus became the Law of the Land? Would any monies spent from that moment on be in violation of the Law? Could you then arrest and courts martial the upper echelons of the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, et al, for engaging in "unauthorized use of force"? Or would any future funding bill, in order to make it all legal and like, have to then state that the appropriations could only be spent on getting them the hell out of there. And what would happen if Bush vetoed one of them and the veto was NOT overridden?

Ah, it's too damn early in the AM to get caught in such a Constitutional whirlpool.