(SORT OF) STRICT CONSTRUCTIONISM

7/9/08

A bipartisan study group led by none other than James Baker III, former Secretary of State and perhaps the most adept human being at turning political connections into cash, and Warren Christopher, another former Secretary of State and perpetual hanger-on and political groupie, has recommended that Congress pass legislation requiring the president to consult lawmakers before going to war. According to the proposal by Secretaries Baker and Christopher, the president should be required to inform Congress of plans to engage in any “significant armed conflict.” Congress would then have 30 days to either approve or disapprove such action.

Hmm…

Perhaps I am assuming too much here, given the propensity of “modern” politicians to ignore what they consider this quaint old anachronism, but surely Secretaries Baker and Christopher and their assorted toadies are aware of a document called the Constitution of the United States of America. Article 1, Section 8 of the aforementioned document outlines the powers of the legislation branch, and lists, among those powers:

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
(Emphasis mine)

Doesn’t that about cover it? Had we not routinely ignored this wise and restrained enumeration of legislative powers, we could have avoided a lot of disasters, including Vietnam and Iraq. Rather than forming a commission that serves as an opportunity for former politicians to make and reinforce contacts with which to extract more money from the taxpayers, why not just keep things simple and return to Constitutional government?

Oh, yeah, I forgot. One of the presidential candidates proposed such radicalism this election year and was routinely dismissed as some kind of kook. He obviously got nowhere with the modern, well informed American electorate.

On a related note…

It’s interesting how self-styled “conservatives” piously proclaim their fealty to the Constitution when it suits their purposes but routinely ignore it in such minor matters as sending people off to their potential deaths at the whim of a president.