First we had Murtha trying to usurp the President’s power granted to him by our Constitution, now Senator Levin and Biden are getting in on the act….shocking I know:
Two Senate committee chairmen spoke of possibly modifying the 2002 resolution that authorized Bush to go to war.
"That was a wide-open authorization which allowed him to do just about anything and put us now deep into combat in Iraq," said Sen. Carl Levin, who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Sen. Joe Biden, a 2008 presidential candidate who leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke of repealing that original authorization and restating the president’s authority, to clarify the current mission of U.S. troops in Iraq.
"I’ve been working with some of my colleagues to try to convince them that that’s the way to go … make it clear that the purpose that he has troops in there is to, in fact, protect against Al Qaeda gaining chunks of territory, training the Iraqi forces, force protection and for our forces," said Biden, D-Del.
What are these nimrods thinking? They CANNOT tell the President HOW to conduct a war. The Constitution is very clear on that, and for good reason. Blackfive put up the powers granted to Congress regarding this issue:
Congress’ Powers from Article One
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;
To provide and maintain a navy;
To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;
To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
And notes that nowhere in there is anything written about specifying how the President can use the military. They can declare war, which the AUMF pretty much was, but they cannot then tell the President "well, you can go into Iraq but for only for such and such"
No, the Congress cannot micromanage the war and you would think these fools would know this. But alas, their Democrats.
UPDATE
Just read the transcript of the show Levin was on. Check this out:
One thought is that we should limit the mission to a support mission — in other words, an antiterrorist mission to go after Al Qaeda in Iraq, to support and train the Iraqi army, to protect our own diplomatic personnel and other personnel in Iraq, rather than this unlimited mission which was described in the authorization for the use of force.
Um…what the flying eff is going on over there now? We are killing al-Qaeda and other terrorists, we are training the Iraqi army, and protecting our troops.
Yup, those "new" ideas just roll off of Levin like butter.
Other’s Blogging:
See author page
If the congress is in violation of the constitution doesn’t that mean every law and rule passed by congress is now null and void, including their ‘assumed’ power to tax the people. Time for some of the smart constitutional lawyers to get to work and get the retarded monkeys off of our back.