The Seduction

What is wrong with this picture?

White House spin: Jay Carney said earlier in the week that the outing was “meant to be an opportunity for the speaker and the president, as well as the vice president and Ohio governor, to have a conversation, to socialize in a way that so rarely happens in Washington.”(1) BULLSH*T!

Clue: It occurred on the eve of the Obama administration having violated The War Powers Act(2). The War Powers Act of 1973 requires either a President to seek the authorization of Congress or for there to be “a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces” for a President to use armed forces in foreign lands. The intention of the law was to create a check, by codified law, on the power of any US President to use armed forces without the consent of Congress.

That law merely endorses what our Constitution already says in Article I, Section 8, which speaks to enumerated powers of the Legislative Branch, wherein the general power…”To declare War,…” is noted. The War Powers Act merely codifies to law stringent limitations upon the Executive Branch, so a President does not have the right to commit forces to a military venture in foreign lands for an open-ended period of time without congressional approval.

Obama has done just what he and his demonRATic brethren accused his predecessor of having done. He ignored those limitations imposed by law and knowing he’ll come under fire for such has reached out to Boehner to seduce the leader of the one congressional house NOT willing to do his bidding and for which his party doesn’t have control. This is what may be called The Arrogance of Power and precisely why the founders set up OUR Constitution with a Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances provisions built in. They understood the wisdom of the adage that “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”. All presidents have that tendency to want to dominate and accrue great power to themselves. Nixon vetoed that original bill. That bill (actually a resolution) is in fact now a law. A violation of law most certainly, by precedent, rises to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors” as an impeachable offense under our Constitution(3).

When a sitting President, who just happens to be in violation of The Rule of Law, gets his Vice-President and sets up a golf outing with two of the most influential members of his opposition party away from the influences of others of their party it isn’t intended to be a political epiphany of the joyous embracing of non-partisanship to get the budgetary stalemate broken. Unless, of course, your view of American political history is a reflection of Alice’s Wonderland.

I have this date sent off a message to House Majority Leader Boehner to make the obvious point about his recent golfing date and DEMANDED he fulfill his legal and constitutional responsibilities and NOT assume the position of butt-boy enabler for this President.

(1) https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43443532/ns/politics-white_house/
(2) Public Law 93-148> https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/warpower.asp
(2) https://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/article02/18.html