New Legislation Pending To Limit Presidential Powers - UnConstitutional!

According to news reports (here and here), the Defeatocrat led Congress is gearing up for a fight with the White House over the President’s authority to conduct missions in Iraq. Hmmm, the last time I checked with our founding document, the Congress doesn’t have that authority.

Article II Section 2 of the US Constitution states:

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States;

And if I’m remembering my oath of enlistment correctly from 1987, I believe the wording was such as that I swore to obey the orders of the President of the United States and the officers appointed above me not the Congress. But let’s check.

“I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.” (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962).

So where does Jack Murtha, Teddy “The Lush” Kennedy, John “I’ll Never Be President” Kerry, Bella Lugosi Speaker Pelosi, and John “I’m Best Buddies With the Defeatocrats” McCain, get the authority to challenge the President on his Constitutional authority to be Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces?

The fact is that they have no authority to do so. They only have the power of the purse. But they are all reluctant to exercise that power because to deny funding to troops in the field would be political suicide. There would be calls for impeachment ringing throughout the land.

Senators don’t have as much to fear beyond impeachment, but Congressmen have to run for office again in 2008. And because it is the House where all such bills originate, those bills will not be forthcoming. Bella Lugosi, I mean Speaker Pelosi, is getting too comfortable in her temporary diggs and she’s not going to want to vacate in 2009. So she is not about to commit political suicide to appease the far left.

Another trouble spot for the Defeatists, Senator Joe Lieberman. He is being courted by the Republican Party to switch. Now although this political capital will be short lived, he is holding the cards in the Senate. If Harry Reid is foolish enough to bring to the floor for a vote a bill that is designed to cut off funding to troops in the field, Lieberman will in all likelihood switch parties thereby shifting the power structure in the Senate back to the Republicans. If Lieberman became a Republican, the vote division would be 50 D - 50 R and the Vice President as President of the Senate would have the deciding vote on every issue. Further complicating things for the Dems is the fact that Senator Tim Johnson still cannot be present for votes. Thus in a sense a Lieberman defection from the Democratic Caucus would make it a 50 - 49 majority for the Republicans.

So I say to the Defeatocrats, go ahead, introduce a bill to cut off funding. It will be shot down and your political careers will be very short lived.

/rant