TPM on Dennis Kucinich crazy talk

[dennis4868]

Rep. Kucinich (D-OH) says President Obama should be impeached over the Libya campaign.

A short while ago a couple of our reporters were asking questions on the history of the War Powers Act and the necessity for a declaration of war for the president to go to war.

I explained that the current constitutional rule is that a president doesn't have to do anything to send the military into battle. Except in cases where the ruling party believes an Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) sets the party up well for the next election campaign.

So in general, it's ideal to have a congressional vote except if you don't have time or don't want to.

http://editors.talkingpointsmemo.com/

[ananda]

1. OK, riddle me this.

Is our president essentially a dictator with imperial unilateral power to
take this country into war at will or whim?

Or are we a country with a constitution and a balance of powers responsible
to the public?

[dennis4868]

2. give me a break.....

Clinton conducted no fly zones and nobody bitched about congressional approval....this has everything to do with hatred for Obama and not the constitution....this is quite obvious....anyway, a president never needs approval before starting military actions....this is a "FOX News" made up type outrage.

[Ozymanithrax]

3. Clinton was accused of waging the dog so people would quit...

talking about that woman... Monica.

[dennis4868]

4. right....

but it was not coming from dems....he conducted no fly zones and not a peep from dems or liberals....THIS IS ALL ABOUT HATRED FOR OBAMA!

[Vicar In A Tutu]

5. Is it a race thing?

I'm wracking my brain, but somehow that seems to be the only really logical reason for this folly. If not, where was he when Clinton did his thing?

[Drunken Irishman]

12. What did Kucinich say in 1998?

Wasn't he in Congress then?

[Bluerthanblue]

16. actually Kucinich was part of a suit against Bill Clinton, there was

one other Dem. - Marcey Kaptur, but all the other plaintiffs were conservative republicans. Bob Barr, Mark Sanford, Tom Tancredo, Bob Schaffer, Phil Crane, Dan Burton, and others.

They brought this suit 2 days after Pres. Clinton announced intervention with NATO forces in Kosovo.

The suit was dismissed for "lack of standing" and an appeals court agreed. So, as far as I can see, this is just posturing- or attention seeking.

:shrug:

[dsc]

19. that is baldly false

both then and now liberals opposed that mission, wrongly in my opinion but they did oppose it.

[Runework]

20. yeah?

I had major problems with Clinton's action-

no congressional approval

siding exclusively against the serbs when EVERYONE was committing war crimes, including the croats

yes, the croats who enthusiastically ran concentration camps and to this day arent shy about unfurling their swastikas.


but no, problems with this Libyan action...all boil down to irrational hatred...

[Bluerthanblue]

18. this happened to Pres. Clinton -

DK and several other Congressmen, all but DK and one other were Republicans- Bob Barr, Tancredo, Marc Sanford, and Ron Paul among them.

The case was dismissed, and dismissed again on appeal.

:shrug:

[Raine1967]

7. Simple answers: No and Yes.

No riddle at all.

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 (50 U.S.C. 1541–1548) was a United States Congress joint resolution providing that the President can send U.S. armed forces into action abroad only by authorization of Congress or if the United States is already under attack or serious threat. The War Powers Resolution requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days, with a further 30 day withdrawal period, without an authorization of the use of military force or a declaration of war. The resolution was passed by two-thirds of Congress, overriding a presidential veto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution


As of today, SCOTUS has not ruled the War Powers Resolution of 1973 unconstitutional.

[Cali_Democrat]

6. All Presidents should seek Congressional approval for military actions IMO

I don't want a President that goes off to war on his own without Congressional approval. Something like that shouldn't happen in a Democracy.

[tekisui]

8. I agree. Unfortunately the tradition since WWII is to ignore that.

Obama isn't doing anything that any of the previous president's didn't do. It doesn't mean it is right or that they all couldn't have been impeached for it.

[Cali_Democrat]

9. Yup. n/t

[MedicalAdmin]

10. What makes you think you live in a democracy?

Voting machines with proprietary software and no paper trail?

Unilateral executive powers?

The patriot act?

Collusion between business leaders and government flunkies?

Lack of oversite or regulation?

Union busting?




What makes you think the the USA is a functioning democratic republic? It's an empire where the rich and connected do whaterver the fuck they want and the rest of us just hope we don't get crushed today... and maybe tomorrow if we are lucky.

[Cali_Democrat]

11. Agree 100%

We are not a functioning Democratic Republic and the fact that a President can go to war without congressional approval is just one of many examples of why our democracy is broken.

Our government is sold to the highest bidder.

[MedicalAdmin]

13. If I may provide a small refinement of our post...

"our government WAS and IS sold to the highest bidder."

Past tense. AND present tense. It's an ongoing decades old project.

[MH1]

14. There's a whole boatload of things that *shouldn't* happen in our government that do

With someone like Obama at the helm, an AUMF is not high on my list to be concerned about, next to right wing fundamentalist nutjobs running amok with legislation and some of it getting through.

I think he did ok on Libya, and if he'd try'd to get AUMF Benghazi would have been overrun before it happened. It wasn't like Congress didn't know what was coming. It's not like he declared war in the middle of the night on a country that was basically stable.

[FrenchieCat]

15. The Senate passed a resolution on March 1st in reference to

endorsing the UN to established a no-fly-zone.....

so Congress not only knew, but they were clamoring for it.
Then when it happened, some of them changed their minds, I guess. :shrug:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x635010

[ReggieVeggie]

17. So this article is bunk

Since Kucinich NEVER said Obama should be impeached. FAIL!